Hermione Granger and The Legend of y Wraig y Llyn
by smokingpixies
Summary: Hermione returns to Hogwarts for her sixth year under the shadow that is Voldemort's return. With Harry lost in his grief and Ron seeking comfort in the arms of his new girlfriend, Hermione finds herself alone as she is summoned on a quest of myth and legend. Eventual Dramione
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I wish I did, but I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter or the Wizarding World: All credit must go to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.**

 _Authors note: First of all hello and thank you for taking a chance on my story. This story is a complete rewrite of my first multi-chap Hermione Granger and The Legend of Ynys yr Enaid Bendedig. There were many things wrong with that story and not just the writing (and believe me I'm not the best writer now) a lot of the storyline was forced to fit something that just wouldn't quite fit and rushed as I wanted to get it out there, as a result the story lacked. Whilst the first few chapters and spirit of this rewritten story are the same, a lot has been reworked so that the story flows better and makes a lot more sense- I hope. So here's goes..._

 _~X~_

 **Chapter One**

 _Malfoy Manor_

Malfoy Manor, what a joke that name had become.

Draco would never forgive his father for making him feel this way in his own home.

It wasn't theirs, not anymore. The house that ten generations of Malfoy's had called their home had been lost under his father's reign. Not that it mattered much to him. Lucius had been locked away under the protection of Azkaban.

Yes he may feel the miserable drain of the dementors every day but that was not true hell; this was.

Imprisoned in his own home, confined to his bedroom for days, even weeks at a time; only released to face the torture of his father's true punishment at the hands of the relishing and sadistic Death Eaters.

It had been made quite clear that Lucius's failings had cost the entire Malfoy family their standing.

Narcissa and Draco lived it day after day.

Draco could take the ridicule, the humiliation and even the torture but what was beginning to wear him down was the silence of the dark hours that was penetrated by his mother's screams.

It was knowing that he could do nothing to protect her that was slowly destroying him. Even if he tried, they would only kill them both.

So night after night he would lie there and listen, with nothing to do but bite down on his pillow and let the tears flow.

He could not stand it any longer. He could not listen to her cries again tonight, he had to escape.

The library at Malfoy Manor was magnificent by any standards but to Draco, it was more than just the thousands of volumes and impressive architecture. To him, it was his comfort like a steaming bowl of stew on a cold winter's day. It had always been his safe haven, his retreat when his parents had been fighting or his hiding place when his parents had invited over their many questionable guests.

The overpowering smell of dust and books had the power to calm and the draw of disappearing into another world proved too much temptation for him to ignore.

As soon as he stepped into the rooms comforting embrace a weight felt like it had been lifted from his chest. He tentatively walked along the first aisle running his finger along the shelf beside him.

The only light was the bluish glow from the midnight moon that streamed through the windows but Draco did not dare to reach for his wand. Instead, his eyes strained to see the titles as he scanned the shelves. He plucked a few books from the lower shelves and stashed them inside his robes before reaching for a small, rather rickety looking pair of ladders beside him.

Draco planted his feet firmly on the second rung and as he did the little ladders shuddered and jerked to life. They hovered just off the ground for just a moment before slowly floated upwards. Draco controlled their direction with just a shift of his weight, floating left and right, higher and higher until his pockets and arms were full of his favourite titles.

The ladders safely drifted Draco to the floor without a sound. He struggled to balance the weight of his burden but delicately found his way to the chair beneath the window. It was an ugly looking thing; ancient salmon coloured upholstery and almost threadbare on the arms, but it was his favourite and the most comfortable chair that Draco had ever sat on. It was in this very chair that his mother used to read him all of her favourite childhood tales when he was an infant. As he pressed his nose against it he thought he could faintly smell her perfume. Tears welled up in his eyes until he pulled himself away to throw himself into another world.

Draco took a very sorry looking book from the pile, it's spine was barely intact and the pages were dog-eared, but to Draco that was a true sign of a good book. He had read this particular one a hundred times before and it had never failed to cheer him up. Draco gently opened the book and tried to follow the familiar writing but it was no use. His thoughts kept drifting back to his father and the hate he felt for him.

Lucius had never understood his love of reading, he viewed the task a chore and a complete waste of time, he often admonished his wife for encouraging Draco to spend hours whiled away in another fantastic tale.

A distant clanging sound tore the thought of Lucius from his mind as Draco shot up from his chair, braced to attack. The pile of books clattered to the floor. Nausea swept through Draco as the sound reverberated across the room. He reached into his pocket to grasp the wand that he had stolen back only a few days before.

He felt as if he had taken a punch to the chest as the door was thrown open to let a sickly orange light penetrate the room.

Draco fought his natural instinct to freeze and reached for the pinch of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder from his other pocket. He threw the powder against the floor to shield him whilst he darted behind a bookshelf. He leant his back up against it, fighting his lungs to draw a breath.

"Who's there?" Croaked a familiar voice.

A temporary relief allowed Draco to compose himself before he stepped out to face the intruder. "Rodolphus," he sneered.

"Ahh nephew," Rodolphus growled with a delighted grin. "Tut tut, why are you out of bed? I can't imagine anyone gave you permission to be roaming the halls this late at night," the man chuckled baring his rotting, brown teeth.

Draco regarded his "Uncle" with contempt. "Must I remind you Rodolphus, this is my house," he spat.

"Not anymore, kid," Rodolphus cackled.

His words hit Draco like a lick of leather whipped across his bare skin. Draco squared his shoulders and thrust out his wand.

Rodolphus regarded him for just a fraction of a second before letting out a howl of laughter. He took a few steps closer to Draco so that his nose was almost touching his.

The stench of his breath turned Draco's stomach but he stood unrelentingly, glaring back at him.

"You dare to threaten me, boy," Rodolphus growled as he pressed his wand deep into Draco's throat.

"I dare," Draco smiled as he raised his own wand and jabbed it into his uncle's chest. He opened his mouth to utter a spell but his uncle was quicker.

"Petrificus totalus," Rodolphus roared.

Draco struggled as he felt the invisible ropes snake around his body, binding him. As he was thrown to the floor, his head smashed against the unforgiving marble floor. The pain swirled in his head as he felt a sticky wetness build up underneath his head but he fought against the dizziness and unconsciousness that tried to draw him in.

"A lesson in manners is needed, I think," Rodolphus sneered as he thrust back his foot before smashed it into Draco's stomach.

Draco lay perfectly still, unable to bend over or hug himself tightly to fight the pain. His eyes welled up with tears as a cough that could not escape choked him.

The man cackled as his foot buried itself deep into Draco's gut again.

A black void threatened to pull him under but Draco would not give the man the satisfaction and battled to keep his eyes open.

"What an honour it is that the Dark Lord chose your home as the headquarters of the revolution yet you whine and cry at every possibility. You should be worshipping at our feet that we haven't disposed of you and you snivelling mother yet," Rodolphus paused and chuckled to himself. "The Dark Lord is saving that pleasure for your fathers viewing, when he finally returns. But that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun now, does it?"

Draco watched as his uncle flourished his wand and cast his spell. The jet of red seemed to shoot towards him in slow motion. Draco felt what was coming before it crashed and spread throughout his body.

The spell that bound him kept him still and silent but inside, every fibre of Draco's being was burning and screaming. Rodolphus inflicted the torture again and again until Draco finally succumbed to the welcoming darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter** **Two**

 _Mrs Weasley's Worries_

 _The sky had been lit up by a thousand stars. The lake-eerily still- glittered as it basked it their reflection._

 _A gentle breeze whispered to her, it buzzed in her ears growing louder and louder. Hermione felt as if she was floating over the scene higher than the giant hills that hid the magnificent body of water but as she focused on it she felt her body drift closer and closer._

 _What looked to be like a thousand people were gathered around the water's edge._

 _The chanting grew louder._

 _" Mae hi'n anodd cael ei ddal oni bai eich bod yn cael ei alw yn ei chael hi, dod o hyd i'w merch wych o'r llyn."_

 _As she neared the centre of the gathering, Hermione could see these creatures were not men, she did not know what they were._

 _Some were the size of a small child with pockmarked green skin, jutting fangs and covered with bright ginger fuzz, which grew around their heads like a mane. They were joined by others who were tall and almost human looking but with small pointed faces and black beady eyes, and some which looked remarkably similar to house elves, but were much smaller, lacking a look of neglect and wearing clothing and headdresses made of leaves._

 _The creatures continued chanting but Hermione struggled to understand their words._

 _"Mae hi'n anodd cael ei ddal oni bai eich bod yn cael ei alw yn ei chael hi, dod o hyd i'w merch wych o'r llyn."_

 _Her presence was ignored. Every pair of eyes were focused on the middle of the lake._

 _Every hair on the back of her neck- and her arms- stood on end as a wave of dread crashes through her. The chanting had stopped._

 _A thousand men stood in silence waiting expectantly for something unknown._

 _Hermione couldn't help but watch with them._

 _The water was deadly still as a white-blue light shot up from its depths._

 _The creatures began chanting again but their words were different now._

 _"Y Wraig y Llyn...Y Wraig y Llyn."_

 _A young woman emerged from the water with hair so pure white it Illuminated the air around her. She turned to face Hermione, who tried to not react to the vision in front of her._

 _The woman glared at Hermione, her features seemed somehow hard and yet unemotional. As much as she fought to Hermione could not break away from the exchange; the woman's eyes held her entranced._

 _The prettiest swirling cloudy blue, they resembled a precious gemstone that pulled you into the depths of her soul._

 _"Hermione," she whispered._

Hermione shot up in her bed as the ethereal voice startled her. She fought against the sleep that threatened to take her under once again. Her heavy eyes fluttered as they struggled to stay open. The dream drifted away as consciousness took over.

Her body was clammy and her breathing was laboured. She looked around the room momentarily unsure of where she was.

The room was now swamped in blackness, any light from the moon had been blocked out by the curtains. Ginny snored softly in the bed beside her.

She had slept right through dinner until what she assumed the small hours of the morning.

Hermione's stomach rumbled, and her tongue felt strange and waxy. She lay back on the bed for a moment internally debating whether she should sneak downstairs for a glass of water. She turned on to her side to get comfortable but her thirst only increased.

The floorboards creaked as she tiptoed across them. Ginny snorted and lay silent for a moment. Hermione stood still before the snoring resumed. She closed the door softly behind her.

Hermione tiptoed down the squeaky staircase hoping not to disturb any Weasley. As she approached, she noticed a dim, flickering light coming from the dining room.

Mrs Weasley was slumped over at the head of the long table hugging a basket of washing close to her chest. She looked up at Hermione; her eyes were red and puffy but only for a moment before she smiled.

"I was just about to make myself a hot chocolate. Do you fancy one?"

"Yes please," Hermione nodded eagerly.

"I did save your dinner for you, but if pie and mash is too heavy, I could whip up something else," Mrs Weasley said as she bustled about, gathering cups and a saucepan with her wand.

"No, honestly I'm fine, just hot chocolate would be wonderful," Hermione insisted, not wanting the woman to go to any trouble but her stomach rumbled again giving her away.

"How about some crumpets?" Mrs Weasley chortled.

"Yes, please," Hermione conceded, smiling broadly.

A bottle of milk came flying over Hermione's head, Mrs Weasley held out her arm lazily and caught in mid-air. She shuffled over to the stove and busied herself with cocoa powder and sugar.

Evidence of Ron and Ginny's presence in the house was littered everywhere. Old school books were thrown carelessly; Clothes hung, drying and pets cages left to be cleaned out by Mum.

Hermione glanced over at Mrs Weasley's grandfather clock. Every hand pointed to mortal peril.

"Here we are then," Mrs Weasley chimed, a huge plate of buttery crumpets and two mugs of steaming hot chocolate chugging along behind her. The plate dropped down in front of her as Hermione gulped, she would never be able to eat all of these. Mrs Weasley picked the hot mug from the air and placed in next to Hermione, "Careful dear, it's very hot."

Hermione tucked into her food; she had never appreciated a crumpet as much as she did at that moment. Her stomach purred in appreciation as she devoured them.

After attacking only a third of the plate, Hermione was full. She sat back in her chair and felt her belly grow tighter around her jeans. She took the mug of deliciousness in both hands and sipped with delight.

Hermione looked up and caught Mrs Weasley glancing around at her clock. The older woman noticed from the corner of her eye and turned back to face her.

"It's always like that now," she admitted, as she looked down at the table, lost in her thoughts.

Hermione was lost for words as she gazed at the woman, she looked so broken and defeated at that moment. All of the feelings and worries Hermione had been able to block out while she was sheltered in the comfort of her Muggle home came bubbling to the surface. "I'm scared, Mrs Weasley," she choked.

"Me, too, dear." Molly regarded Hermione with a soft, motherly expression.

Hermione sipped her drink lost in her thoughts for just a minute before she placed the mug down as looked up at the other woman.

"How do you think Harry is? I'm worried about him," her voice was strangled as she admitted her fears.

Mrs Weasley sighed deeply before she replied. "He is no doubt in a very dark place right now. Sirius's death was even more tragic because Harry was there to witness. There is no doubt that he will be questioning whether he could have done something different, something to save Sirius, it is only natural. He has faced so much loss in his life already and Sirius's death is bound to have dragged up feelings about his parent's deaths. To live through such tragedy at that young age is bound to have a profound effect," tears rolled down the woman's cheek as she struggled to carry on.

"What can we do to help him," Hermione choked through her tears.

Mrs Weasley gazed at Hermione and spoke with great sadness. "I would take his pain from him and bear it myself if I could, " she said and gave Hermione a weak smile. "but there is only one thing any of us can do and that is be here for him. We must show him that there is a light amongst the dark and we must find a way to help him carry on."

Tears spilt down her cheeks as Hermione nodded in reply.

"Albus writes that he is collecting harry tomorrow to bring him here. I'll be glad when he does and Harry is back here with his family. I can't bear to think of him stuck at that awful place, but they are his orders."

Hermione felt a rush of affection towards Mrs Weasley for her love for Harry. She had taken in a desperate young boy and given him unconditional love. She had welcomed him with open arms into the only family he had ever known.

"You and Mr Weasley are fantastic parents to Harry," Hermione said and smiled which the Weasley matriarch returned broadly as she nodded.

The click of a hand of the Grandfather clock reverberated around the room. Arthur's hand had moved from mortal peril to travelling. Molly spun around half on her chair, half scrambling to her feet. She shuffled over to the door and threw it open just as Mr Weasley appeared as if out of thin air.

"Arthur," Molly greeted with a sigh of relief. Hermione noticed how Mrs Weasley's posture relaxed as if her tension had been dissolved.

"Hello, Molly dear." Arthur leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. "You know you really should wait for me to knock on the door before you open it," he said as he pulled away and began to shrug off his cloak.

"I knew you were coming," she replied as she pulled his cloak from his shoulders and folded it over her arm.

"Hello, Hermione," Mr Weasley greeted cheerily.

Hermione smiled broadly at him. "Hi, Mr Weasley."

"Arthur, please," he insisted as he took a seat opposite her.

Hermione was shocked as she took in his appearance. She had seen him only weeks ago, but the change was significant. His eyes were almost lost to the black that circled them and his usually red hair now only hinted at streaks of red amongst a mass of grey. Arthur leant back on the legs of the chair and stretched his arms out above him with a huge yawn.

"Sorry I'm late, dear. A last-minute raid was ordered, and it was all hands on deck, I'm afraid." He turned to his wife.

"Well, that's not very fair," Molly grumbled.

Arthur shrugged with a look of resigned acceptance.

"I wouldn't mind, but this is the third time this week," she clucked.

"What can you do? The Auror department is out for blood at the moment, and Scrimgeour is keen to make his mark. To show the people that things are being done," he affirmed.

Molly hovered by the table as she fumbled with her apron ties.

"Are you ready for some dinner, dear?" Mrs Weasley asked, her tone softening.

Mr Weasley flushed and fidgeted in his chair. "Well, I ate in the cafeteria actually, so I'm not that hungry," he admitted sheepishly.

"It's steak pie and mash," she chimed brightly, attempting to coax him.

Arthur looked down at the table as he shook his head, "I'm okay, dear. Thank you."

Mrs Weasley shrugged her shoulders and sat down, summoning an extra cup of hot chocolate over for her husband.

"How about a crumpet," Hermione smiled nudging the plate across the table.

"D'you know, that'd be just the ticket," Arthur said grinning back.

"Mr Weasley," Hermione started to question.

"Arthur," the man gently reminded with a smile.

"Arthur," Hermione smiled. "When you said the Aurors were out for blood is that because of the Stone murders,"

"Yes," he nodded with a grimace. "Frank Stone was an excellent and beloved member of the Auror team and what the Death Eaters did to that family was unspeakable. But also I think it has them rattled. If they could get to Frank, who had over 20 years experience in the Auror department, what could they do to them and their families? As you can imagine tension is running high at the ministry."

Hermione nodded as Mr Weasley picked up another crumpet, stuffed it in his mouth and held it there while he leant over the table for the most recent Daily Prophet.

"There is an article about Pietro Winterbotham on page five," Molly claimed, pointing at the paper which hid her husbands face.

"Oh," he moaned, lowering the paper to skip to the right page. "It was only a matter of time before they caught wind," he nodded with a knowing glance towards his wife as he skipped to the relevant page.

"Hmm," she murmured. "Albus wrote today, he is due to bring harry tomorrow."

"Good, good," he replied as he helped himself to another buttery crumpet. "I'll be glad when he is here."

Molly sighed and turned her face away to hide her tears from her husband. "Me too," she agreed.

Arthur lowered his paper. "Remus said he needs to pop by tomorrow. Can you ahh.." he finished as he glanced at Hermione.

"Yes, of course." Molly nodded knowingly.

Hermione downed the thick powdery remains in her mug feeling awkward about intruding on their conversations.

"I'm going to go back to bed, now. Thank you, Mrs Weasley." Hermione quietly interrupted.

"Yes you must get your sleep, it's a special day tomorrow," Molly turned to Hermione and beamed.

Arthur looked up at his wife with a bemused gaze.

"Owl results are due tomorrow," Molly reminded him.

"Oh of course," he nodded. "Send me an owl as soon as they arrive I'll make sure I can get away even if it's just for a minute," Arthur said before turning to Hermione. "Goodnight, dear."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

 _O.W.L's_

"Ginny...Hermione," Molly Weasley knocked on the door softly as she opened it. "Breakfast is ready."

Hermione's eyes fluttered open, "Mmm...morning, Mrs Weasley," she grunted as she wiped her mouth and sat up. Her dreamy eyes struggled against the bright morning sun.

"Go'way mum," Ginny mumbled as she pulled one of her pillows over her head.

"Come on, it's almost nine, and I have a surprise for you," she teased.

Hermione yawned and rubbed her eyes. She reached over into her trunk and pulled out her dressing gown. Ginny was snoring softly in the bed beside her.

"Ginny...Ginny," Hermione urged. "Breakfast," she shouted at her friend's bed.

"Bedownnow" Ginny mumbled as she tossed over onto her other side.

Hermione slipped on her dressing gown and left Ginny to doze.

Bill was the only Weasley at the table as she took a seat. "Morning," he chirped brightly over the top of his copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Morning," she mumbled wishing she had run a brush through her wild hair.

Ron came down still half asleep; he grunted his greeting and dove right into the feast that Mrs Weasley had set out for breakfast. He piled his plate high with eggs, bacon and toast and filled a huge bowl with porridge and tucked in without stopping to catch a breath.

Once he had eaten his way through half of his plate, Ron had considerably brightened. "What's the surprise, Mum?" he remembered.

"Where's Ginny?" She replies ignoring her son

"I think she's has gone back to sleep, Mrs Weasley, I did try to wake her," Hermione admitted sheepishly.

Mrs Weasley rolled her eyes. "Well I suppose, it concerns the two of you more, anyway,"

Ron wore the expression of a puppy who had been tempted with a treat. "Is it Harry?" he begged.

His mother smiled and nodded. "I had a letter from Professor Dumbledore late last night, he wrote that he was to collect Harry today and bring him here for the remainder of the holidays."

"What time will he get here?" Ron asked.

"He's already here. Dumbledore dropped him off at about 4am this morning. I put him to bed in Fred and George's room."

Hermione looked up from her cup of tea questioning Mrs Weasley. "How is he?" She asked quietly.

The older woman reached over the table to affectionately pat Hermione's hand. "He is okay. He just needs some good home cooked food and a lot of love."

Ron had scoffed down his plate of food and before fininishing his last swallow, offered his services to take Harry up his breakfast.

"No, Ron. Let him sleep a while longer," She snapped at his eager insistence.

Ron sat back down with his shoulders slumped. He helped himself to a second mound of eggs, bacon and toast. He stabbed at his food before shovelling it down; only stopping to glance at his watch at regular intervals.

At 10 o'clock Mrs Weasley gave in to her son's silent protest and allowed him and Hermione to take Harry up a breakfast tray.

Hermione knocked on the door but the room was silent. She knocked again before letting herself in.

The daylight had been blocked out by thick orange curtains causing the room to be bathed in a twilight-esque hum. Harry lay still in his bed.

"Harry," Hermione approached gently.

"Alright mate, Mum's made you some breakfast." Ron added brightly- following Hermione into the twins old room and closing the door behind him with his foot.

Harry remained still, the only sign of life was his chest as it slightly rose and fell.

"Harry," Hermione nudged his shoulder gently.

"Uh," Harry moaned as he turned over and instinctively reached out for his glasses.

Hermione suspected that Harry had been pretending to be asleep but did not call him on.

"Alright mate, Mum's made you some food," Ron said again- though a little more subdued- as he approached Harry's bed and lay the tray on top of the bedside cabinet.

"Thanks," Harry murmured as he sat up against the pillows. He reached out for the plate and gobbled down the food with a gusto which would make Ron proud.

Hermione stood looking down at him as he shovelled down bacon, eggs and toast, waiting for a chance to talk.

Harry looked up from his plate to find his two friends gazing at him expectantly. He sighed quietly and returned to his food and ate at a much slower pace than before.

"Good summer?" Ron asked with a false chirpiness.

"Stuck at the Dursley's," Harry scoffed.

Ron's mouth went slack as he visibily squirmed. "Oh, yeah. Sorry." he muttered.

Harry returned to eating in silence, for a few minutes the only noise that filled the room was Harry's quiet chomping and occasional swallowing.

"Did you hear about what happened at the Puddlemere United versus the Ballycastle Bats?" Ron turned to Harry with a false cheeriness.

"How would I?" Harry replied blankly.

"Dad showed me an article about it in The Daily Prophet. Their keeper, Gethin Jones, took a bludger to the head, it was quite nasty; gave him a concussion but he refused to stop playing even though his vision was blurred and he couldn't see the quaffle. Puddlemere United was absolutely hammered...four hundred and twenty to fifty." Ron continued as if he had not heard his friend.

"I'm not allowed to receive the Daily Prophet at Privet Drive. Dumbledore has banned any unnecessary owls to the house as a security precaution," Harry scoffed the last two words. "I've only had your letters and the one from Dumbledore last night."

"Oh," Ron muttered weekly.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Hermione asked warily.

"'M fine," Harry grunted, avoiding her gaze.

Hermione stepped back and looked around the room. Ron shifted uncomfortably as he eyed the exit.

Gaining courage, Hermione continued. "You're not though, are you?"

"Leave it, Hermione," Ron mumbled in an effort to stop the provocal of his temperamental friend.

Hermione spun around on the spot to glare at Ron. "No I won't leave it, Ronald," she barked.

Harry played with the food on his plate, moving it around with his fork, occasionally spearing a scrap of bacon or big of scrambled egg and putting it in his mouth. He stabbed his fork increasingly harder as Ron and Hermione continued with their whispered bickering match.

"Just stop it," Harry shouted almost knocking the tray from off of his knees. "I'm not an object to talk about, and I don't want your pity." he sniped.

"It's not pity, Harry," Hermione coughed. "We're your friends; we want to help you,"

"Well you can't," he replied harshly.

Harry threw back the covers in frustration and spun his legs out to sit on the side of the bed. He glared at Hermione with a look of such disgust that it caused her to recoil a little.

"Harry, please," Hermione pleased with him. "Sirius's death was tragic and I know you're hurting but if you let us, we can help."

Harry sighed deeply. "You think that is what's wrong?"

"Yes...maybe, but if it's not then please tell us, Harry. I know there is something up. Let me… Let us help you."

"Is it… you-know-who?" Ron whispered nervously.

Harry nodded as he turned to the interruption. "Yes It is Voldemort," he snapped.

"Your scar?" Ron pointed hesitantly at Harry's forehead.

Harry shook his head slightly and shrugged. No… and yes, I suppose. It's just different now."

Hermione stood not daring to draw a breath as she waited for Harry to elaborate. A thousand scenarios flashed through her mind; the silence in the room was driving her crazy.

"Different, how?" she urged unable to stand the wait anymore.

"It doesn't matter," Harry mumbled.

'No, Harry! Tell me." Hermione insisted. She softened as she gazed deep into his tortured eyes. "It may help to get it off your chest,".

Ron who had remained deadly still and silent during the confrontation nervously agreed with Hermione.

"He is getting stronger, I can feel it. His reveal at the ministry gave him license to crawl up from the underground and carry out his terror in broad daylight. Things are getting worse and what's being done about it?" Harry's voice grew louder and louder. Ron and Hermione looked at each other as Harry threatened to explode.

"Nothing," he spat.

"I'm sure plenty is being done, behind the scenes, Harry," Hermione tried to calm him down.

"There isn't. I know there isn't! I don't understand the complacency," Harry raged.

"Fred and George have been making loads of contacts for the order, and I know Dad has been working for them every hour he can spare from the ministry." Ron offered uncomfortably as Harry stood up and began pacing the opposite side of the bed to where Hermione stood with a timid looking Ron.

"Contacts," Harry scoffed. "How is that going to help. We need to kill Voldemort not make new friends."

"Dumbledore will have a plan," Hermione began to cry unable to hold back the tears any longer. She hated to see her friend like this; she could only hope that venting his feelings on them would help, even just a little.

Harry drew a deep breath and let out a deep sigh as he stopped pacing and locked eyes with Hermione."

"I already know the plan." Harry sighed deeply and opened his mouth to continue when a banging on the door stopped him.

"Ron, Mum wants…" Ginny started before she was interrupted by her mother.

"Ron, Harry, Hermione…" Mrs Weasley called and hastened up the stairs.

"Why did she bother sending me up?" Ginny muttered as she threw open the door for Mrs Weasley to burst through it seconds later. The older woman bubbled with excitement but that was soon replaced with an anxious glance between the trio.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"Nothing," Ron shrugged as he replied.

"Okay, well come on. Something has arrived to cheer you all up."

Harry shot Ron a quizzical glance.

"I've got no idea mate," he replied just as puzzled.

Hermione suddenly felt her blood rush down leaving her mouth parched and her stomach full of dread. "O.W.L. Results come today," she replied, her voice strangled and raspy.

"Oh, is that it? We might as well stay up here for a bit." Ron suggested.

"No, your Mum is waiting for us. We should go down," Harry insisted.

Hermione thought that Ron seemed eager to carry on their conversation but she could see that Harry had already withdrawn back into his thoughts.

Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ginny and Bill all stood huddled together at the end of the table waiting expectantly. Bile burned at the back of Hermione's throat as she saw three thick letters fanned out on the table bearing the names: Ronald Bilius Weasley, Hermione Jean Granger and Harry James Potter.

"I can't open it," Hermione croaked nervously.

"Of course you can," Ginny laughed

Mrs Weasley hovered over Ron's shoulder, waiting expectantly. He too took a minute before opening it.

"Shall I open it for you, dear?" Mrs Weasley cooed.

"No, mum." he sighed. I'll do it."

Hermione turned the envelope over in her hands and stared at the scarlet wax seal before locking eyes with Ron.

"Are you ready," she turned to smile at Harry who stared blankly at his envelope.

The three of them, together ripped into their letters.

Hermione slipped out the sheets of parchment that had been folded over each other.

The first was her usual Hogwarts letter followed by the required textbook list. She shuffled through the pages until she reached the last.

 _Ordinary Wizarding Level Results_

 _Hermione Jean Granger_

 _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 _Ancient Runes-Outstanding_

 _Arithmancy- Outstanding_

 _Astronomy- Outstanding_

 _Care of Magical Creatures- Outstanding_

 _Charms- Outstanding_

 _Defence Against the Dark Arts- Outstanding_

 _Herbology- Outstanding_

 _History of Magic- Outstanding_

 _Potions- Outstanding_

 _Transfiguration- Outstanding_

"Oh, my gods!" Ron spluttered.

Hermione looked across the table at Ron who monetarily looked shocked and confused before being smothered by his mother, who showered him with kisses and praise. "Oh Ronnie," she gushed. "I am so proud of you...Well done."

He flushed bright red under his mother's bosom as his father came up behind him, eyed his letter and promptly threw himself into the embrace with his own congratulatory words.

Ginny yanked his results from her brother's hand and sat back to read it. "Nice one, Ron," she congratulated, sounding genuinely impressed.

Bill leant across the table and yanked Ron's results from Ginny's fingers. "Let's see what you got then... Hmm very good. Well done, little brother."

Harry's results on the table as he read a different letter

"I'm Gryffindor captain," mumbled.

"Well done mate," Ron cheered. "We need a decent captain, we sucked last year."

"Let's have a look then," Harry said as he held out his hand with a grin.

"Only if I can see yours," Ron laughed handing the parchment over.

"How did you do, Hermione?" Ginny turned to her.

Still looking down at the parchment, her expression blank, Hermione passed it to her right. "Oh wow, Hermione, well done." Ginny got up from her chair and hugged Hermione from behind hers. "Though I'm not surprised."

Hermione's head span as Mrs Weasley pulled her into a deep hug from behind. "Congratulations, my dear. Your mother and father will be so proud," Mrs Weasley whispered into Hermione's hair.

She could not take in the words she had just read. All Outstandings. It was unbelievable, she thought for sure that she had messed up on both charms and transfiguration.

Ron stared down at his letter dumbfounded. Ignoring the attention from his family he looked over to Hermione.

"You did well then," she asked him when she'd caught his eye.

Ron nodded slightly in reply as leant over the table and handed her his results

 _Ordinary Wizarding Level Results_

 _Ronald Bilius Weasley_

 _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 _Astronomy- Exceeds Expectations_

 _Care of Magical Creatures- Outstanding_

 _Charms- Exceeds Expectations_

 _Defence Against the Dark Arts- Outstanding_

 _Divination- Acceptable_

 _Herbology- Exceeds Expectations_

 _History of Magic- Acceptable_

 _Potions- Exceeds Expectations_

 _Transfiguration- Exceeds Expectations_

"Oh Ron, well done." Hermione gushed as he burned bright red. "I knew you could do it."

"Not without you, I couldn't" he croaked shyly as his cheeks momentarily flushed red. "Let see yours then." Ron quickly scanned the parchment she hesitantly passed to him. "Look at you," he complimented. "Congratulations, Hermione."

"How about you Harry," Hermione said as she held out her hand expectantly.

"Yeah, not bad," he shrugged passing his letter across the table.

 _Ordinary Wizarding Level Results_

 _Harry James Potter_

 _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 _Astronomy- Acceptable_

 _Care of Magical Creatures- Outstanding_

 _Charms- Exceeds Expectations_

 _Defence Against The Dark Arts- Outstanding_

 _Divination- Acceptable_

 _Herbology- Exceeds Expectations_

 _History of Magic- Dreadful_

 _Potions- Exceeds Expectations_

 _Transfiguration- Exceeds Expectations_

"Well done, Harry," Hermione congratulated him as she read the results faster than he did.

"They're not the greatest, Hermione," Harry admitted.

"They are mostly very good. Don't diminish your achievements," she replied.

Harry gave her the first genuine smile that she had seen from him for a while.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

 _The Assignment_

The Hogwarts Express was already puffing away as Mrs Weasley hurried them on to the platform.

Summer had passed by unnoticed with their days filled with endless lists of chores set by Mrs Weasley- Hermione supposed it had been the older woman's way of distracting Harry from his grief. Their nights were spent locked away in Ron or Ginny's room, with the siblings moaning about their mother whilst the group played cards or chess.

Hermione had not been alone with just Harry and Ron since the first morning that Harry had arrived. No matter how much both Hermione and Ron tried to engineer a moment another Weasley would pop up to intrude.

As much as she loved the family, Hermione was secretly glad to be going back to Hogwarts.

"Come on boys, keep up," Mrs Weasley moaned as she charged the way.

The platform was busy, more so than usual; sobbing parents saying their goodbyes and scared students wanting to hold on to their comforting embrace.

Hermione and Ginny fought their way through the crowds following Mr and Mrs Weasley down to the last carriage of the train.

"Now, you're sure you haven't forgotten anything?" Mrs Weasley questioned her daughter.

"Yes, Mum," Ginny huffed.

Hermione took a few steps back away from the conversation as Molly continued to interrogate her daughter. Ginny looked as if she was about to explode.

"Well if you have forgotten anything, send me an owl," Mrs Weasley conceded.

As Hermione gazed around at the families hugging, crying, laughing, it suddenly struck her just how much she missed her own parents. She loved her parents dearly but magic, and especially Hogwarts, had somehow created a wall between them. She no longer belonged in their world, and they did not understand hers.

Hermione fought back a tear that threatened to spill and tried to distract herself from her surroundings. She waved and smiled at a few friendly faces before her eyes locked on the Malfoys.

She could not look away as Narcissa Malfoy whispered to her son frantically while he stared down at her darkly, shaking his head in reply.

Draco was almost unrecognisable; his hair was unkempt as if he hadn't run a brush through it in several days, his cloak was quite visibly dirty, and he was deathly pale. His mother looked worse. Her dress was torn, and the soles flapped from her shoes. The Malfoy's usually prided themselves in their appearance. Hermione felt a little rattled to see them like this.

"Are you coming?" Ginny nudged and pointed to the train doors which were just opening. Hermione followed her friend onto the train calling out her goodbye's to Mrs Weasley.

"Be good," the older witch waved as she followed the friends as they walked through the carriages.

"I've packed you all some sandwiches for the journey," Mrs Weasley kissed her hand and threw it to them before turning back towards The barrier.

"We've got Prefect Duty," Hermione reminded Ron as he went to take a seat next to Harry.

Ron groaned. "I'll see you in a bit mate," he said redundantly as he turned to Harry.

The Trolley-Witch had already made her rounds by the time they returned to their friends. A huge pile of sweets sat beside Harry, who was encouraging everyone to dig in.

Hermione gratefully accepted a pumpkin pasty. She sat back and savoured its familiarity.

"Guess who we saw sat alone in the corridor," Ron said to Harry.

"Who?"

"Malfoy, he was sat with all of his luggage just staring at the doors," Ron chuckled.

"I'm guessing he's lost a few friends now that his family have lost their standing," Harry smirked.

"He looked so sad," Hermione added wistfully

"Why do you care?" Ron spluttered.

"I don't," she snapped turning to face out of the window.

Hermione watched the trees and green speed past from the window as Ginny and Neville played exploding snap beside her. Neville had lost a few rounds so far but gave no sign of giving up, even though he had now completely lost his eyebrows.

The train chugged through the wild Scottish hills before slowing to pull into Hogsmeade Station.

The smell of the thick black smoke that poured from the chimney, Hagrid's voice booming over the crowds, "Firs' yers over 'ere," and the sight of the castle in the near distance filled Hermione with such a sense of contentment and belonging as she breathed it all in.

Professor McGonagall stood waiting on the steps as students crossed the castle grounds. "Come on, hurry up now," she commanded in her clipped Scottish accent. "The first years will be here soon. Hello, Saunders...Tuck that shirt in, Cook," she greeted students. The professor shot a small smile at Hermione before continuing. "Leave your luggage to the side and proceed to the Great Hall."

Thousands of candles hovered above the grand hall, illuminating the house flags that hung proudly on the four walls. A clap of thunder roared as a storm brewed above them on the enchanting ceiling; the engulfing clouds forced a premature night.

Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron and Neville walked down the aisle between the sweeping house tables and took seats together at the Gryffindor table. Students up and down the table waved hello; more shot them curious glances; as Hermione glanced around the room, she noticed they were garnering more than a few curious glances from the other house tables. A few Slytherins made empty threats and gestures as she caught their eye, but then she had accused some of their parents of being Death Eaters.

Everybody in the Wizarding World now knew that Voldemort was back; they also knew that something happened at the ministry involving the five of them (and Luna) and a group of Death Eaters. It had been gossip in the paper's for weeks, even now they referred to the story and the theory that Harry was the 'Chosen-One'.

"Hi, Ron," called a shrill voice from down the table. Hermione turned to see Lavender Brown grinning in Ron's direction.

Ron turned and nodded feebly before turning back to face Harry.

Ginny stuck out her tongue and pretending to vomit across the table at her brother.

Hermione ignored the gnawing feeling in her stomach, allowing herself to enjoy the moment. She loved the sorting ceremony.

Teachers trickled in causing the noise to die down to hum, especially when a new face appeared and took his seat. He was a portly, rather aged man but he regarded the staring crowd with a jolly smile and wave. Dumbledore regarded him warmly as he entered from the door beside the teacher's table. The room fell silent as he took his seat and watched across the hall with a twinkle in his eye.

Hagrid burst through the main doors into the waiting silence, looking wild and wet; causing gaps and shrieks from both new and old students. He apologised meekly and profusely as he shuffled to his seat. He greeted Hermione, Ron and Harry with a hazardous wave when he had taken his place at the teacher's table.

The new first years were soon lead into the Hall by Professor McGonagall; who carried a small wooden stool which had an ancient looking, pointed wizard's hat, sat on top of it. She placed them at the front of the hall and stepped back expectantly.

The hat burst to life and opened its mouth to sing, causing a few gasps and screams from the queue of new students.

" _I would not win a beauty contest_

 _For I know, I am a sight_

 _But when it comes to placing children_

 _No hat could be so bright_

 _Perhaps you'll go to Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave and daring;_

 _Or make your way in Hufflepuff,_

 _Hardworking, just and caring;_

 _You might be fit for Slytherin,_

 _Where cunning is admired;_

 _Or find your home in Ravenclaw,_

 _Where wisdom is inspired_

 _Now please step forward, take a seat_

 _On your head is where I sit_

 _I'll take a look inside your mind_

 _And find out where you fit."_

The hat finished the song as his the folds of his fabric formed a smile.

The first years shuffled forward slowly following Professor McGonagall.

"Oh come on, I'm starving," Ron groaned, his voice ringing out across the silent hall as he flushed and tried to retreat down into his robes.

Professor McGonagall shot him a look before turning back to the first years as she withdrew a scroll of parchment from her robes.

"When I call your name you will step forward, take a seat and place the hat on top of your head."

Hermione watched the new students mutter between themselves nervously.

"Rachel Perks," She called.

A small raven-haired girl nervously tripped over her feet as she stumbled to the front of the room. She seemed unable to look up at the masses of older students staring expectantly at her.

She placed the hat on her head, and without deliberation, the hat yelled, "Ravenclaw."

Rachel moved off the stool with a little more confidence as the Eagles roared with delight as they welcomed her to their table.

"Stuart Masters," Professor McGonagall continued. A small mousy haired boy ran up to the stool and beamed with excitement as he glanced around the room. "Gryffindor," the hat yelled.

The table exploded with screams of joy, cries of congratulations and cheers of welcome. Hermione clapped and cheered along, smiling at the boy as he marched over to the Gryffindor table, basking in the attention.

Several new Gryffindors joined the table and chatted excitedly to everyone who sat around them. She was just as full of wonder and awe when she first arrived at Hogwarts, and if she was totally honest, she still was now.

When the final students had been sorted, Dumbledore stood up, and the room fell silent.

"Congratulations, first years and welcome. To everybody else welcome back. Now dig in," The Headmaster urged, as masses of food appeared on the tables.

Ron moaned in delight as Hermione watched him, disgusted, as he piled his plate.

"Your obsession with food is not healthy, you know," She glared at him as she helped herself to salad and a few slices of roast chicken.

Hermione watched Harry as she picked at her food. He chatted and ate as if he were enjoying himself, but there seemed to be a somewhat distant look in his eyes. She dismissed it, fearing she was overreacting.

Once they had gorged themselves on treacle tart, apple crumble and lashings of custard, Dumbledore stood up and waved his hand. The dishes had vanished leaving the immaculately clean.

The entire hall burst out into a hum of murmuring as bright orange numbers appeared on the table where the plates had just been.

"What the bloody hell!" Ron gasped. A large number 2 sat in front of Hermione. She glanced up and down the table and noticed everyone was either a one or a 2.

"I have a few start of term announcements," Dumbledore said as he took his podium but the students took no notice and continued musing between them; some even poking and prodding at the table where their number shone. The headmaster spoke again, a twinkle gleaming in his eye as his voice boomed across the hall. "Mr Filch would like me to inform you that the following Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes products are now prohibited. Skiving Snackboxes, Screaming Yo-Yo's, Boxing Telescopes and All Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs products. The full list of banned items is, of course, in Mr Filch's office in case anyone would like to refresh their memory," Dumbledore smiles around his lost crowd. "I regret to inform you that once again we have lost our Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor,"

Cheers and whoops rang through the hall as the question of their numbers was momentarily lost.

"So without hesitation, may I introduce, Professor Horace Slughorn; who has kindly agreed to return to his old position as Potions Master," The Headteacher gestured to the new professor and smiled at him warmly. Professor Slughorn gave the crowd a lazy wave and nodded to Professor Dumbledore.

"Potions," Harry spat so that only his friends could hear.

Harry wasn't the only one to express their surprise the noise level in the room exploded. Dumbledore coughed before continuing.

"Leaving Professor Snape free to take over the role of your new Defence Against The Dark Arts professor," Dumbledore looked down at the teacher's table giving a small clap to Snape and Professor Slughorn.

Harry spat in disgust, along with many others, while cheers rang out from the Slytherin table.

"Settle down, settle down" The Headmaster called out. "I have one final announcement before the lure of your warm, comfortable beds proves too inviting. But please listen as this is important. As you are now all aware, Voldemort has returned and is at large once more," gasps and cries of shock at the name rang out but Dumbledore continued. "I ensure you that the security of this castle and every student within it is my utmost priority. Measures have been taken to ensure our safety but if you are unsure of anything, do not hesitate to seek the help of your head of house, or indeed any other teacher," A warm smile radiated from within his waist-length beard. "War spreads an atmosphere of fear and mistrust. It is difficult to build relationships but in these dark times but we must remember the value of friendship and love. We must cherish it and fight for it. For it is only the light of love that will protect us from the darkness that tries to penetrate our walls. If love stands united, evil can never win."

"That was a bit sappy wasn't it?" Ron said nudging Harry.

"Continuing on with that theme, I have an assignment for you all. In front of you is a number; a One or a Two. Each one of you has been matched with another student. Your assignment is to keep up regular correspondence with your match in the form of letters. The number you have been given is to initiate the scheme. If you received a number one, you will write first. If you had a number two, you will wait for your letter before replying. You may choose what you write about, if much at all. You may reveal yourself or choose to remain anonymous, it is your choice."

"Settle down, settle down," Cried professor McGonagall as she attempted to contour the moaning crowd.

"Well I'm not doing it," Seamus groans were equalled around the hall.

Dumbledore grinned before continuing. "In each common room, you will find a postbox. Once a week pop your letter in it and it will find its way to its recipient; further instructions can be found on your house noticeboard. And one final thing, participation is mandatory. Now it is getting late, off to bed...pip pip."

Nobody moved for a moment as they digested the thought of the unwelcome assignment. The hum of disappointment lingered in the castle long after lights out.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

 _Harry's Confession_

 _mae iachawdwriaeth wrth law os ydych chi'n ceisio'r tiroedd sanctaidd._

The chanting sang to her even when the sound of Lavender's loud grunt and squeaky shuffling pulled Hermione from the dream.

Lavender had already settled and was snoring loudly as Hermione opened her eyes.

The soft rhythmic lullaby that she could not forget called her back into its depths.

* * *

Most of her housemates were already down when Hermione went down to breakfast. There a few moans around the tables but there was mostly a positive buzz as the conversation across the hall focused solely on Dumbledores assignment.

Although she would never admit it, Hermione was excited at the thought of a pen pal. A couple of girls in her class at primary school had always bragged of theirs. She had longed for one of her own, someone to talk to and be honest with in a way that you couldn't be with someone face to face. She had always envied those girls for the relationship that she had so desperately wanted; perhaps this was her chance to finally experience it.

"I hope I get a good one," Ginny mused as Hermione nestled on the bench beside her.

"I'm bound to get the worst, it'd be just my luck," Ron grumbled into his sausages before taking a bite.

"What number did you get?" Ginny asked turning to Hermione who helped herself to some toast.

"2" Hermione replied.

"Aww," Ginny sighed. "So you've got to wait for them. I got 1. I wrote most of my letter last night but I'll go over it again tonight before I send it. How about you, Harry? What number did you get?"

Harry gulped down his spoonful of cornflakes. "2 but if we've got to do this, I'm glad I don't have to go first."

"I got one," Ron groaned. "I haven't got a clue what to write."

"Just introduce yourself," Ginny replied. "Are you going to stay anonymous? I am,"

"Yeah," Ron agreed. "What if they turn out to be a psycho or something. I don't want them knowing who I am."

Hermione nibbled on her toast as she watched Harry. He had seemed so much brighter after just one night back at the castle.

"Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall said interrupting her thoughts. Hermione hastily swallowed down a large bite of toast as she turned to face the woman.

"I received your note and have spoken to your professors, who have agreed to grant your request." The woman tapped her wand on a piece of parchment bearing Hermione's name. "I must stress what hard work it will be and it is entirely down to you to manage the workload." The kindly woman warned her.

For the first time in her life, Hermione didn't know where she was going. Everything had been so easy before, to succeed all she had to do was study hard and pass the exams but now it all seemed so complicated. She was being asked to choose where she wanted to go in life so that her education could be restricted to that path but she had no idea where that was.

 _He_ had taken all thoughts of a future from her. She could not see past the fog of impending war.

Instead of restricting her education, Hermione felt that it was her duty to learn all that she possibly could.

For now, it was all she could do to contribute.

During the summer Hermione had sent Professor McGonagall an embarrassingly pleading note, begging her teacher to allow her to take on an overloaded timetable, Hermione had been worried when she had not heard back but now for the first time in weeks, she felt a tiny glimmer of relief.

Professor McGonagall smiled before turning her attention to Harry.

Whooshing and squawking announced the arrival of the post owls. Hermione watched them as they darted about the room to their receivers.

A large, grumpy looking tawny owl dug his claws into the table as he landed just next to Harry's breakfast. It stretched out its leg for Harry to untie its burden before hooting softly and pointing its beak to the leather envelope attached to its ankle.

"You shouldn't read such drivel Potter," Professor McGonagall commented as Harry unrolled the morning's edition of The Daily Prophet.

Harry threw the paper down onto the table as he turned to the teacher ignoring the owl that was eyeing his bacon fat.

Professor McGonagall regarded a slip of parchment through the glasses perched on the end of her nose. "Is it still your ambition to become an Auror?" She asked as she met Harry's gaze.

He seemed momentarily stunned at her question but managed to compose himself. "Yeah, I suppose," he muttered, shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, while your O.W.L grades are not indicative of you at your best, your teachers agree that if you work hard it will possible for you to achieve your goal," she smiled before handing Harry his timetable and moving on to Ron.

Harry barely looked at it before stuffing it into the inside pocket of his robes.

When Professor McGonagall had moved on along the Gryffindors, Harry snatched up the newspaper and glanced over the first page.

His jaw clenched as he began to read more intently.

"What is it?" Hermione said as she leant across the table to him.

After a moment Harry stood up and threw the paper down in front of her before walking away.

Ron looked at her and shrugged as Hermione snatched up the paper.

The headline article was a feature on safety in the home published by the ministry but in the corner, a tiny, frowning picture of Harry caught her eye.

 ** _The Chosen One Returns to Hogwarts_**

 _Picture this; The clock ticks 10:59 am. The first signs of smoke puff from the chimney as the Hogwarts Express gets ready to depart. We all remember it. The excitement of seeing our friends and setting off to the great castle once again._

 _This year's journey, however, was a much more sombre one._

 _"Everyone was crying," one concerned parent told us. "No parent wants to let go of their children in times like these."_

 _In the midst of the crowds gathered at Kings Cross Station was Harry Potter aka the Chosen One, who returns to Hogwarts for his sixth year._

 _After that incident at the ministry earlier this year it may come as a surprise to the Wizarding community that Mr Potter has chosen to return to school at all._

 _As we now know, whatever occurred that night between Harry Potter and He who must not be named, centred on a prophecy kept within the depths of the Ministry._

 _Despite Albus Dumbledore's continued denial of these events, reliable sources have insisted to us that not only did this prophecy exist, but it also labelled Harry as The Chosen One, the only one with the power to defeat The Dark Lord._

 _With this and the knowledge of the Headmasters closer than usual relationship with his student, it can be assumed that Mr Potter will be studying a more advanced course of magic than his fellow returning classmates._

How many times could they rehash the same article for another nonsense story? Ever since that night, The Daily Prophet had been speculating and eventually reporting that speculation as truth. It made her sick that they could get away with it.

"What's it about?" Ron questioned as he stood leaning over the breakfast spread to grasp the paper away from her.

Hermione let it go. She wanted Ron's opinion; was she wrong. Yes, it was annoying how The Daily Prophet used speculation and fantasy to keep Harry in the public eye but this was nothing worse than usual. Last year, the prophet had pelleted him with a barrage of abuse and he hadn't let it get to him as much as this.

Ron placed the paper down slowly with a furrowed brow before he looked up at Hermione and shrugged.

He didn't have a clue either.

"Have you got many classes with him today?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah," Ginny interrupted. "Their timetables are identical. Couldn't bear to be away from each other, could you?" She chuckled with a sly wink at her brother.

"Well keep an eye on him and try to talk to him," insisted Hermione.

Ron nodded, albeit non-committedly.

Even though today was only the first day of class the workload was already heavy. Hermione worked in the library throughout lunch to up with the work.

The hunger pains rumbling in her stomach won the battle for her focus during the last lesson of the day. Hermione had barely heard a word that Professor Sprout had said, let alone take any notes.

As the Professor began to dismiss the class, Hermione hurriedly gathered her things together and was the first one at the door to leave.

The hall was almost empty with just a few students beating her to the evening feast. As usual, Ron was at the Gryffindor table and already had a plate piled with food sat before him.

"Where's Harry." She asked taking a seat on the bench opposite him.

Ron shrugged refusing to look up from his potato as he stabbed at it. "Haven't seen him all day," he mumbled.

"What do you mean, all day?" Hermione shrieked. "Hasn't he been to any of his classes?"

Ron shook his head.

"No," Ron replied as he finally looked up to meet Hermione's steely gaze.

"Well haven't you looked for him." Hermione gasped with exasperation.

"Well yeah, of course, I have." Ron hissed as his face flushed with colour. "When he wasn't at lunch, I went to the Quidditch pitch and the common room, and I asked Hagrid if he'd seen him but he obviously wants to be alone, so just leave him for a bit."

Losing courage, Ron fixed his gaze firmly on his dinner and sat picking at it silently.

It was obvious that Ron was worried about Harry. He was off his food; playing with it rather than gobbling it down like a pig at a trough. But it frustrated her that Ron could be so flippant about things. If only he could see things her way.

"You're useless," she mumbled as she reached for a Yorkshire pudding from the top of the pile, filled it with succulent roast beef and folded it over like a sandwich and got up from the table.

"Where are you going?" asked Ron.

"To find Harry," she spat as she walked off.

The Gryffindor common room was unusually silent, all of its students down in the great hall for dinner, all except two. Hermione spied a lock of unruly black hair poking up from a high backed armchair facing towards the window.

"Hey," Hermione said as she approached Harry's chair from behind.

He turned to face her with a weak smile. "Hey."

"Where've you been all day?" Hermione took a seat in the armchair beside him.

"In bed, mainly," he mumbled looking away from her. "I've got a banging headache."

"Have you been to see Madame Pomfrey."

"It's just a headache, Hermione. Leave it."

Hermione leant in closer to her friend. "Please, Harry. Talk to me," she begged as she reached over to the arm of his chair to grasp Harry's hand.

"It just got to me," he whispered; refusing to avert his gaze from an ancient stain on the rug.

"What?"

"The article." Harry murmured.

Hermione smiled at Harry, stalling for time as she chose her words carefully. "I know the Prophet seems to drop your name at every possible opportunity, Harry and I can't imagine how intrusive that must feel. But I don't understand it. Why has this particular article affected you? They have written so much worse."

Harry slowly looked up to meet her gaze with his dark eyes. "Because they are right."

Hermione scoffed. "About what?"

Harry leant up on his hair to hastily glance around the common room before sitting back down to regard Hermione with a fierceness in his eyes.

"It's true Hermione. Everything they saying about the prophecy is true."

"The Daily Prophet is a rotten tabloid. Ten per cent of what is written in that paper is fact, the other ninety is whatever outrageous scandal or drama they imagine. You cannot let yourself believe this. We were there at the ministry, you saw the prophecy smashed before anyone could hear it. Nobody knows what it is truly about." Hermione tried to reign in her temper as she ranted at her friend but her voice grew higher and higher.

"For once will you just listen,"

Hermione sat back momentarily shocked by the firmness of Harry's tone.

"Thank you, " he muttered. "Yes it was smashed but there was another record of the prophecy. After…" he gulped trying not to resurface the memories of that night. "after Dumbledore bought me back to the castle he told me."

"What?" She mumbled stupidly.

"The prophecy was made just after I was born; to Dumbledore. He showed me what it said."

"Can you remember what the prophecy actually said?" Hermione asked not feeling the confidence she spoke with.

"It was something like "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to parents who have three times defied him, the Dark Lord marks him as he equal and neither can live whilst the other survives."

"Do you really believe in it? I mean, Trelawny is an old fraud and divination isn't exactly a reliable branch of magic is it?"

Harry glared at her. "This is real, Hermione. Whether you believe in divination or not. Voldemort heard part of the prophecy years ago, that is why he gave me this scar. He is coming after me because he believes that I am the only one who can defeat him. It doesn't matter if it is true or not."

Hermione stared at him openmouthed, struggling to digest what he was saying.

"What they wrote in that article today was right; if I the one to stop him why aren't I being taught how to? I am not going to stop him by going to charms class or learning potions." Harry spat.

"No but…" Hermione tried to interrupt him but he continued ranting over the top of her.

"It is getting worse, it seems like every day you hear of a missing person or another attack. People are dying and here I am expected to read books and play Quidditch like a good boy. I should be out there fighting. It's me he wants. People are dying because of me."

Harry was breathing heavily as he turned and stared at the wall. Hermione wanted to cry at her friend's pain but swallowed her tears back as she reached out to comfort him.

"Harry, you cannot blame yourself like this."

The door of the passageway swung open, Harry spun around to face the intruders causing Hermione to stutter into silence.

A group of giggling first-years stepped through before scurrying off up the stairs to their dormitory. "I'm gonna go up to bed too," Harry said as grasped at the arm of his chair and pulled his invisibility cloak over him.

"Harry," Hermione called out but he did not reply.

Students began to trickle back to the common room; with her head spinning from all that Harry had told her, Hermione did not want company and went to bed.

A yellowing envelope was lying on her pillow. Hermione tore open the wax seal and I folded the parchment.

 _I'm only writing this because I have to. I don't want to talk to you and I don't need a new friend_

Hermione scrunched up the letter and threw across the dormitory. She lay back on the bed and sighed. Typical.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

 _Into the Forest_

* * *

 _Thank you for your letter._

 _I understand that you do not like the thought of this assignment but as we have no choice about it, shouldn't we find something to talk about?_

 _I will start- Do you have any siblings? I always wanted a sister but I'm an only child. I think it is because I am an only child that I developed my love of books. Do you like reading? I have so many favourite titles I don't think I could name an absolute favourite but for nostalgias sake, I would probably have to say the whole Chronicles of Narnia series or Hogwarts; a History._

 _How are you finding school so far? I love being here but sometimes it is so hard isn't it._

 _I really do hope you will give this assignment a chance._

* * *

"'Ermione," Hagrid grinned and threw his rake into the pumpkin patch to greet her.

"Hi, Hagrid,"

The genuine look of joy he gave her caused the brewing guilt building in her stomach to rise up into her throat- the bile burning it.

Hermione had been back at Hogwarts for over two weeks and she has missed every Care of Magical Creatures class so far, in favour of Arithmancy.

Arithmancy was the more difficult subject of the two- she had reasoned to herself- she had to keep up with the work. She had only chosen to attend Care of Magical Creatures today because Hagrid had bounded over to the gryffindor table at breakfast when he had seen her and asked when she was coming.

"It's good t' see ya," Hagrod beamed as he looked down at her.

"You too," she smiled.

"Ain't seen much of the three o' ya since ye been back. I suppose you've been busy with ye Newts an' tha',"

Her cheeks burned as she shifted her gaze slightly behind her loveable teacher. "yeah," she nodded.

"Well it's good to see ye now," he smiled. "Well as you can see it's just the two o' us this year so I've lined up a bit of a project for us."

Memories of the blast ended screwts came rushing back. Maybe they were the reason she was the only returning student.

Hermione had taken care of magical creatures for the same reason she had taken her other classes- she wanted to learn all that she could. War was imminent and she had no idea what was coming; she had to be as prepared but she knew just what Hagrid's projects were like and she wasn't sure if she could commit the time he expected.

"I know that you are busy, the staff are amazed with ow you are copin'with it all. So I've come up wi' a plan for you to fit in the work when ye can."

He smiled kindly before he stepped forward and gestured towards the forest. "righ there is home to almost every creature that will come up in any N.E.W.T. exam and I though' the easiest way to learn how to care for magical creatures is to observe how they take care of themselves. So every now an then, when ye can, me and ye will go out into the forest an see what we can find. Tha' sound okay?"

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and smiled with a rush of affection towards her friend. "That sounds great. Thank you, Hagrid."

"hmm," he smiled. "righ' well come on then, there is no time like the present."

Hagrid lead them off into the trees behind his house, walking slowly to match Hermione's pace.

She hadn't realised just how much she had missed Hagrid; She had looking forward to just getting this class over with but she was actually beginning to enjoy herself. She had almost forgotten the fun aspects of school.

"'ow was yer summer? Good?" Hagrid asked cheerily.

"Yeah," she shrugged, keeping her eyes on the floor watching out for any surprise tree roots.

"I was ere mainly, had a few things to do for dumbledore like but I can't leave my post for too long can I?" He chuckled softly. "Ere we go, look at that," he whisper loudly as he walked over to a rather majestic standing tree. "Bowtruckles. They're boring creatures really, very self sufficient they are."

Hermione watched the Bowtruckle hunting for insects on the branches but Hagrid had lost interest and began heading further into the forests depths. She huffed but jogged to catch up with him. "'ow's school going?" He asked, scanned the trees as they walked deeper and deeper into the forest. "It's hard," Hermione admitted. "But it's worth it."

"Hmmm," Hagrid nodded. "Just remember to take some time for you."

Hermione smiled. "I will," she promised.

"So er," hagrid stalled "how's Ron?"

Hermione knew who he was really asking about.

"He's okay I think. I haven't seen much of him or Harry as I've been so busy catching up with school work.

"hmm, an Harry? 'ow is he?"

Hermione thought of her friend. "I'm not sure really. I'm a bit worried about him to be honest."

Hagrid sighed. "Me too," he agreed. "I've written to him but he don' say much do 'e. It's gotta have been hard on him though hasn't it."

"Yes but I think it is more than that."

"Oh?"

"He seems to shouldering the blame for everything that is happening. He actually believes it is his fault. I'm scared he's going to do something stupid."

She hadn't realised it until she had said it out loud but she was. Harry had a tendency to throw himself into danger without a second thought.

"He is grievin' and he is angry but he will get through it. He just needs his friends," Hagrid replied wisely, smiling kindly.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

'Now, here is something a bit more interesting, " Hagrid pointed at a strange purple lizard like creature that seemed to be shrinking before their very eyes. "Very clever, Moke. Can't be caugh' see,"

Hermione's mind was filled with thoughts of Harry as Hagrid informed her of the creatures many attributes. She didn't really listen but happily followed Hagrid as he lead the way further through the trees when he became bored.

They were so deep into the heart of the forest that many of the trees had intertwined as they were forced to grow so close.

Hermione's legs were beginning to ache and they were beginning to lose all light; whether that was from the canopy of trees or impending night, she was not sure. She had no idea how long they had been out here but it felt like hours.

"Lumos," she whispered as she held out her wand.

The sound of a twig snapping under her foot echoed throughout the trees. Hagrid turned holding his finger to his lips.

She shrugged at him. "I couldn't help it," she whispered.

Hagrid pressed his fingers into his lips a little harder with a firm warning in his eyes.

The forest was silent.

Hermione turned to face the way they came and rolled her eyes. She did not share Hagrids passion for creatures and her dinner was calling her. If they did not head back soon they would be late.

Her stomach dropped as she heard the rustling noise that kept Hagrid so silent.

"Hermione," he urged through his gritted teeth as she nodded towards her wand.

Hermione shone her light ahead but the forest was still again and eerily quite one more.

She spun around, almost tripping over her own feet as she heard it again. In her light she caught a very strange but almost familiar creature.

It was very small with large bat like ears. The creature knelt on the ground, frozen except for its large orb like eyes which very slowly looked up from the ground.

The creature reminded her a little of Dobby but this was no house elf. It was far too small and its features were not quite right- softer somehow. The creature wore clothes made of carefully interwoven leaves and a shock of bright red hair stuck out from underneath its leafy hat. It eyed them warily.

"It can't be," Hagrid boomed as he stepped forward excitedly. "Never."

The creature flinched back, shaking with terror as his gaze travelled up to Hagrid.

"Hagrid," she said causing hagrid to stop mid step. "What is it?"

"I don't know exactly," he shrugged as he turned to her. "I've got a feelin'... Bu' I'm probably wrong."

"What?"

"I think it might be a tree elf but it can' be, " He said stroking his beard and shaking his head as he spoke.

"A tree elf?" Hermione questioned

"Stuff o' legend they are. Never been seen in living history, they ain't, " he muttered as he stared at the creature with longing. "I don' know wha' it'd be doing 'ere,"

Hagrid took another step towards the strange little creature and bent down to get a better look.

"Hello, " he said to it to the terrified looking elf before turning back to Hermione. "I don't think he speaks, " he shrugged.

"Excuse me," interrupted a small squeaky voice. The elf spoke as it stood up to face them. "I am a she."

Hagrids mouth dropped as he stared rather rudely at her.

"I'm sorry," Hermione muttered as she struggled to find her voice.

"Is it true? Are you?" Hagrid whispered excitedly.

"Am I what?" The elf spoke confidently but eyes Hagrid warily.

"A tree elf,"

"Well I'm not a unicorn, am I?" she chuckled. "My name is Blatheneud."

"Well what are you doing here? Legen' says tree elves only live in the forests of Snowdonia. Wait till I tell people, they'll never believe this,"

"No!" Blathenued replied firmly as she backed away from the approaching half giant. "Today is the day of Mabon Y Fawr, God of all animal kind, I am foraging for a feast in his honour. But please I should not be here and you should never have seen me."

"But…"

"Please just forget that you ever saw me,"

Hagrid tried to keep questioning but Blathenued was becoming hysterical.

"Please just go," she screamed. "Go away!"

"Come on Hagrid," Hermione urged as she tried to pull on the stubborn man's arm. "We should head back now anyway, or else we'll miss dinner,"

Hagrid sighed but agreed and turned to head back. "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it." He muttered repeatedly as he lead them back through the thicket of trees.

Something tugged on Hermione's sock. She turned to see the elf hiding behind a tree beckoning her closer. "Miss," the elf called. "Miss, it is you I must speak with,"

"Me?" She gasped.

"Yes, you."

Hermione stretched out her neck to look for Hagrid who had carried on, still muttering his amazement, oblivious to this new exchange.

Hermione knelt down to regard Blathenued. "Yes," she said silently willing the elf to hurry up. She did not want to get separated from hagrid and risk getting lost out here alone.

"She calls you, miss," the elf stated mystically. "She calls on you."

"What?" Hermione scoffed, not knowing what to make of the funny little creature.

"She calls on you."

Hermione looked out again but had lost sight of Hagrid. Ignoring the crazy elf, Hermione ran off to catch up to him.

Dinner had been long over by the time they made it back to the castle. Hermione ignored the longing rumbling of her stomach as she made her way to the Gryffindor common room.

"Finally resurfaced from the library then," Ron called over chuckling. He was sat with Lavender and an awkward looking Parvati, the two were becoming a regular presence in Ron's company just lately; always popping up next to him at the House tables or hanging around him in their free time.

Lavender howled at Ron's comment but Hermione ignored him. With Harry nowhere to be seen, Hermione could not spend the evening alone with them.

Another letter, just like the one before, lay on her pillow when she went up to her dorm.

 _Write about what you like. It's not like I'm actually going to read it!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 _Detention_

 _The moonlight that poured through the window bounced off his bone white, skull like features. His wide, livid,scarlet eyes glared at her. Voldemort cocked his head to the side ever so slightly as his unnaturally long, thin fingers caressed his chin, musing._

 _The Unhuman like man stepped forward flourishing out his hand in welcome._

 _"Harry," he said with a menacing smile baring his pointed teeth._

Frozen, she floated. All around her was nothingness, a void and the deadly scarlet eyes that peered through the darkness; watching her. She fought helplessly against a force that bound her, crushing her chest. "Help," she cried, her voice strangled and weak.

"Hermione. Hermione,"

Hermione opened her eyes but still kicked against the blankets that had wrapped around her. Her heart was pounding and her body was clammy. She struggled to focus on her surroundings through the lingering sleepy fog. Hermione looked up through one eye to see Parvati standing over her, gently shaking her shoulder. "Hermione, are you okay?"

"Umm," she mumbled as looked around trying to make out her surrounding through the lingering sleepy fog.

"Will you two just shut up," Lavender groaned as she pulled the top pillow from under her head and threw it across the room at them.

"Lavender," scolded Parvati.

Her arms trembled as she pushed herself up and wrapped the blanket tighter around her. "Sorry Parvati. I am fine now, thank you."

The girl smiled concerned. "Do you want me to get you anything?"

"No, honestly…" Hermione began to protest.

"Are you sure? How about a glass of water?"

Hermione smiled and nodded gratefully. She lay back on her pillow and watched her friend retrieve a glass from the water jug beneath the window. Hermione stared out of it at the moon. She flinched and then gasped as she saw a flash of the red eyes from her nightmare light up the nights sky.

"Are you sure you are alright?" whispered Parvati as Hermione gulped down the water, trying to drink the image away.

"I'm fine, honestly," Hermione replied, a little too squeakily. "I think I might go downstairs for a while, sit by the fire," she said as she swung her legs out of bed.

"If you're sure," Parvati replied, that Hermione needed space, she returned to her own bed and drew the curtains.

Hermione reached for a book on her nightstand before ripping off the top blanket from her bed and wrapping it around herself. Very quietly she crept out of the dorm and down the stairs to the gryffindor common room. She headed straight for the armchair in front of the still roaring fire and shuffled about in it until she had made herself completely comfortable.

She flicked through the introductory pages of her well thumbed copy of The Hobbit and settled in to the familiar tale.

It seemed strange to be reading this particular book here at the castle. Her father had introduced her to the magic of Tolkien tales when she had been only five years old. He read to her for hours at a time and as the years progressed she read to him. He loved the tales of magic and adventure just as must as she had; the two of them sat for hours discussing and wishing for the magical world to exist.

How excited he had been when she had received a visit from Professor McGonagall telling her all about Hogwarts and inviting her to go. He had said that all of their wishes had paid off, their dream was coming true.

But nothing was ever so perfect.

In all of their planning and imagining, it had always been the two of them together but in reality the discovery of the magical world that had driven a wedge between them. She missed her parents dreadfully but even when she was with them, she felt the distance between them; more so now than ever before. Sometimes when the nights sky was clear and the stars shone brightly she would look out to them, as she had done all those years ago with her father, and close her eyes to make a wish. Only now she wished for a time when she would be able to share more of her magical life and all of the wizard in world with her father.

Hermione barely scanned the familiar words, quickly scanning through the pages unable to focus on any meaning.

Reading had always been her comfort, her form of escapism; When he parents were fighting, when Amy Speake had invited every single girl in their class except her to her super cool birthday disco and when Fluffy her hamster had died, books were there to comfort her but she was struggling to concentrate now.

She saw those eyes staring at her from the pages. She heard his voice as though as if he were stood behind her whispering into her ear.

It was irrational fear, a dream. Probably the sum of all of the stress and exhaustion from her heavy workload.

But his image, his presence felt so real.

Hermione ploughed through the chapters of the epic adventure until after the sun had come up. Her fellow Gryffindors were up, even going down for breakfast but she ignored them, and the time. She would join them soon. Just one more chapter.

By the time Hermione had washed and dressed she was almost late for the first lesson of the day, Potions. She gathered her books and ran through the corridors to get there on time.

Horace Slughorn, the Potions Master, stood outside of the door to his dungeon classroom, greeting students as they arrived.

Hermione at smiled at him as she brushed past the portly man to take her usual table with Harry, Ron and Dean Thomas.

"Come in, come in," the burly professor's voice bellowed around the classroom as he greeted we the last few stragglers to enter.

"Right then, we haven't much time today so please take out your books and cauldrons quickly and turn to page forty-six. You will be brewing the Wiggenweld potion and it should take most of the remaining lesson, please begin. Help yourself to anything from the store." The door to the store cupboard sprung open as he gestured to it.

Hermione scanned through the list of ingredients twice taking note of what she needed and was the first into the stores selecting her ingredients.

Harry was chuckling and elbowing Ron when Hermione returned to the table. Neither one of them had bothered to make a start on the assignment. Typical.

"So what's going on between you and Lavender?" Harry grinned at his friend.

Ron nervously glanced up at Hermione, his whole face flushed scarlet. He hastily turned to stare at the table and muttered something inaudible.

"Lavender Brown?" Dean joined in. "Yeah she's well into you,"

"She is mate," laughed Harry.

"What are you waiting for? Ask her out, she's fit," encouraged dean.

Perhaps if she had something better to do than fawn over herself in a mirror all day, she might have a personality as well as looks, Hermione muttered to herself.

The two of them had never been friends, but just lately the mere thought of Lavender set her teeth on edge. It wasn't because of how she twirled her hair and panted like a puppy as she fawned over Ron's every word or even how she stayed up late into the night in their shared dormitory wittering on how she and Ron would make the perfect couple to poor Parvati. It wasn't even how the file seem to delight in bitching and laughing about her.

Hermione hated Lavender because she was always just there. She couldn't escape her. At breakfast, in class, with her friends, even in bed.

Hermione crushed her wormwood so aggressively it was almost a fine powder, she scooped it into her hand and tossed it into the cauldron. Following the books instructions she stirred it slowly.

"You might want to light that," Dean said as he pointed underneath her cauldron.

Ugh. "Thanks," she muttered with a weak smile.

She started again with actual heat.

She chopped, crushed, poured and stirred, following the instructions exactly yet her potion didn't look quite right. She stirred vigorously for a minute before leaving the potion to simmer whilst she flobberworms. She scraped their pus into the cauldron. As the congealed pus hit the potion it began to bubble out of control. Hermione reduced the heat but the steam that rose from the boiling stew formed water droplets to roll down her cheeks; making her look as if she were sweating profusely. The humidity caused her already bushy hair to spring out uncontrollably, like a lion's mane.

The potion became sticky, harder to stir before finally she was left with just a charred lump of worthlessness in her cauldron.

She fought back the tears as she tried to wipe them away with her sleeve. "Scourigfy,"

She didn't have time to start the potion again but also didn't have a choice, she had to have something to hand in. Hermione read through the instructions several times before relighting a flame beneath her cauldron. She crushed and chopped faster than she ever had before, carefully adding ingredients to the potion. She breathed a sigh of relief when she added the flobberworm pus successfully although the potion still did not seem how the book described.

 _Slowly stir until potion is Jade Green_

She stirred but the mixture resembled a bogey green rather than jade.

Professor Slughorn made his way around the room muttering his approval around the tables. She felt the Professor as he approached from behind and peered over her shoulder and into her cauldron. "Hmmm," he groaned. "Disappointing, Miss Granger, disappointing."

She didn't dare turn to face him as tears fogged her vision.

When the professor had turned away, Hermione wiped her eyes and raced on with the assignment trying to make the most of every last minute remaining.

"Very good, Mr Potter," Slughorn chortled. "Very good,"

Hermione glanced across the table to spy on her friend's attempts.

Ron seemed to be having just as much trouble with the potion as she was; his face was the colour of beetroot and he looked close to tears as he stirred his cauldron frantically. Harry's potion, however, was much better than she would have guessed. Although not quite the correct shade of turquoise, Harry's potion was a decent attempt.

"Right, that's time. Bottle up your sample and bring it to the front desk."

Hermione swallowed down bitter thoughts as she poured her mediocre potion, into a flask and took it to the front desk.

It was embarrassing to label this subpar work with her name and hand it into the teacher. Her hand hovered over Slughorn's desk as she hesitated, debating whether to give it in at all. She put it down amongst the rest, knowing that handing something in was better than nothing at all.

"Ow," something collided with her shoulder, she turned to apologise but stopped as she met Draco Malfoy's cruel, hateful glare.

"Watch it mudblood," he sneered before spitting at the floor next to her feet.

Chairs scraped and students gasped in the background as the peered around to get a better view of what was going on.

"Or what? What are you going to do about it, ferret?" Without thinking, Hermione whipped out her wand and pointed it at Draco's chest.

Every bit of tension, pent-up emotion and exhaustion bubbled to the surface as she glowered at him.

Draco wrinkled his nose and sneered, haughtily as he aimed his wand at her face. The room hummed with anxious whispers and scrapping of stools. A few of their classmates gathered in a circle around them, to watch the fight unfold. A couple of voices roared over the crowd egging them on.

"Miss Granger, Mr Malfoy put your hands down now." The usually mellow and amenable teacher now cast a stern figure, fearsome even. So locked in their exchange, Hermione and Draco were oblivious to him.

The whispering around the classroom grew louder as Malfoy took a step forward. He held out his arms in mock surrender. "Go on, I dare you. Take your best shot,"

Hermione moved in so close that her wand pressed into the cloth of Draco's robes. "You wouldn't want me to do that, Malfoy," she spat. "If I took my best shot, you would be dead."

Draco forced himself against Hermione's wand as he stepped into her. "You think so?" He whispered over her shoulder as he jammed his wand into her throat."

Her breaths were rapid and shallow as they struggled against the intrusion of wood crushing her oesophagus but she stood firm, scowling at him.

"Expelliarmus." The force of the Professors spell rebounded around the room; shelves rattled and clattered.

Professor Slughorn used his enormous stomach to barge his way between them. Hermione took a step back allowing the teacher to push them apart.

The Professors usually kind face was contorted with rage. His cheeks wobbled as he huffed and puffed and his face and disappearing neck glowed as red as a tomato. His eyes bulged and moustache twitched as he look between them.

"You two, Detention. Now clear away your area and get out of my classroom." He roared. Her stomach dropped as realisation dawned. She could be expelled for this. Eyes all around the classroom stared at her; they whispered and pointed.

Tears flowed freely as she pushed her through them back to her table.

"What the hell was that about?" Ron guffawed.

Hermione ignored him as she scrambled to get her things together.

"Are you okay, Hermione?" Harry concerned.

Blinded by tears and utter shame and humiliation, she could not turn to face him. She was barely holding it together as it was. Hermione thrust her bag onto her shoulder and stormed out of the classroom.

The sobs that she had been fighting broke free as she wandered aimlessly along the first-floor corridor. She felt lost- didn't know where to go.

The whole school would soon know what she had done. She couldn't take Any more looks, any more whispers but there was nowhere to hide.

Without realising how she had made her way there, Hermione passed through the Gryffindor portrait and up to her dormitory. She sighed at the sight of her welcoming bed, longing to be under the protection of its covers.

A familiar envelope lay on her pillow.

Just what she needed.

 _Whatever_

It was the same reply she'd had to her last couple of letters. Without hesitation, Hermione found parchment and her quill and lay on her bed to reply.

 _I have tried to talk and make this work but honestly, I am getting fed up with the same reply. I don't care anymore. I give up._

 _You know most people would welcome the thought of a new friend but I get it, you don't. That's your loss. We still have to write these letters for now but I'll talk to my H.O.H. and I suggest you do the same, we might just be able to get out of it._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 _Halloween_

* * *

 **THE DAILY PROPHET**

 _31st October 1996_

* * *

 ** _15 Years On..._**

 _by Valda Hopkins,_

 _It was a cold, Autumn night when tragedy struck the sleepy village of Godric's Hollow fifteen years ago._

 _On the 31st October 1981, James and Lily Potter had spent an ordinary evening at home, caring for their infant son until evil knocked at the door. Nobody really knows what happened to these two brave and talented wizards as they met their death at the hand of You-Know-Who, but there is not a wizard alive today who does not know the tale of their son, Harry Potter.j_

 _Harry Potter or The-Boy-Who-Lived as he has commonly become known, was just an infant when his parents were so brutally and cruelly taken from him._

 _The rumours are that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named turned his wand on this little boy, something extraordinary happened. A popular theory amongst experts is that the Killing Curse rebounded off Harry and struck You-Know-Who himself, though no one can explain why or how this happened. To this day, Harry Potter remains the sole survivor of the Killing Curse._

 _The anniversary of Lily and James Potter's deaths will be forever remembered as no matter how terrible the events were, that night marked the end of the war. Little Harry Potter was a hero; our saviour._

 _For fourteen wonderful years wizardkind lived in peace- for fourteen years we believed that he was gone forever. How wrong we were._

 _Former Minister Cornelius Fudge announced the return of You know who earlier this year. As we now know He must not be named was sighted at the ministry after he and Harry Potter were involved in some kind of altercation regarding a prophecy, the prophecy that named Harry Potter as the chosen one._

 _Since the announcement of his return reports of violence at the hands of his band of followers known as the Death Eaters have been on the rise. Disappearances are reported daily, there have been numerous sightings of the Dark Mark and just last night the mangled body of loyal Ministry of Magic employee Adrian Witten was discovered in his office.(read more on page six)._

 _This latest incident has me terrified. Twenty years of service within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement could not save him. Mr Witten was attacked as he went about his work, Attacked within the Ministry of Magic itself._

 _If the ministry cannot protect their own, what hope is there for us._

 _The tiny glimmer of relief we felt when Rufus Scrimgeour was named minister of magic is ebbing away. His speech upon taking office was so promising but it has been months and we are seeing no deliverance. No action!_

 _I can't help but wonder if the rumours of this fabled prophecy are true and Scrimgeour is kicking back his heels in his fancy new office, relying on Harry Potter, and his mentor Albus Dumbledore, to fight this war alone._

 _It would not be the first time of complaints of complacency within the ministry. History is riddled with tales of our governments abject failings._

 _But I say is it not their duty to protect us? Is it not their duty to bring an end to this war?_

 _James ans Lily Potter sacrificed their lives and bought about the end of the war but now fifteen years on we are back where we started; You know who is back, we are terrified and again it seems that our only hope is a child._

* * *

"'ermione,"

Hermione put the newspaper down to see Hagrid striding across the hall to the Gryffindor table. She quickly swallowed down her bacon and smiled.

"Hi, Hagrid,"

"Y'alright 'ermione, Harry, Ron." He nodded to each of them, his beady eyes alight and a grin poking through his wild beard.

Hagrid brushed off the boys greetings as he focused on Hermione. "I go' a reply," he said holding up his giant fist which was curled up around a sheet of parchment.

"A reply?"

"Well, I wrote to a few people about what we saw in the forest see,"

"Hagrid, she told us not too."

"Yeah, well," Hagrid shrugged before continuing. "I've 'ad a couple o' replies now to tell he the truth, bu' the firs' few were a bit skeptical but this fella,"

Hagrid thrust out his fist clutching the letter. "This fella thinks I migh' be righ' and 'e wants to ge' together to talk,"

Hermione nodded and forced a smile.

"I though' you migh' like to join us, you know, give him your side of the story,"

"uh…" she was lost for words. She had absolutely no desire to relive the memory of that crazy elf, let alone talk about it with a stranger Hagrid is meeting in the pub. Besides Blathenued had begged them.

"I, uh… I'm quite busy and uh… it's not a long story really is it and I only saw the same as you."

The smile on Hagrids face faded. "Alrigh' then. Well..ah...are you looking forward to the feast tonight?" He asked glancing between Hermione, Ron and Harry. All three of them nodded and murmured in reply.

"Well ye should be," Hagrid beamed with a knowing twinkle in his eye. "There might be a surprise in store fer ye,"

"What surprise," Ron asked.

"I shouldn't be sayin' nothin',"

Ron groaned as he threw down his fork. "Please, Hagrid what's the surprise" he begged.

"Ye'll jus have to wait and see won' ye," Hagrid winked and turned to walk away.

"What did you see in the forest?" Harry asked

"Urgh," Hermione groaned. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later."

"You'd better eat up, Ron," Harry said as he turned to him. "We've got practice in half an hour."

Ron continued eating, ignoring Harry's nagging tone. After years of living with Mrs Weasley, he had probably become immune to it. "I think we've got a good team this year," he mused dreamily.

"Yeah, but we will need a lot of practice; we've had to replace almost half of the team," Harry said sternly, eyeballing Ron. "We won't play perfectly together overnight,"

Ron shoved a whole half piece of toast in his mouth before pushing away his plate with an understanding nod.

Flying around on a stick in the cold wind, over a muddy stadium is the last thing Hermione would want to do with her Saturday, but each to their own. She instead said her goodbye's in the foyer as the boys headed outside and she headed off through the castle's corridors to her favourite place.

She had spent more time in the library in the two months she had been back than all of her years at Hogwarts put together. But today instead of using the vast room of knowledge to keep up with her work, she sought salvation.

For the last few days, Hermione had been the number one topic of gossip around the school and she was becoming fed up of the wondering looks and whispers behind her back.

Her favourite beanbag still bore the shape of her body. The other students now gave this one a wide berth, almost as if they knew she could be along at any minute to claim it. Hermione wandered along the shelves covering a wide range of subjects, plucking books from the shelf here and there.

An enormous red leather bound book in the Magical Creatures section caught her eye as she thought of Hagrid and their earlier conversation. Hermione dropped her armful of books on the nearest table and struggled to lift the encyclopedia from the shelf. It was very old and delicate. Hermione carefully skimmed through the first few pages. Each entry was wonderfully detailed and included beautiful illustrations. Unable to carry them all together hermik e first took her pile of books to place them beside her beanbag and then returned for the encyclopedi

Hermione spent over three hours scanning through over seven thousand pages of magical creatures yet there was not one mention nor even one creature similar to what she had seen. The thought of not knowing frustrated her, the question nagging in her thoughts until she found the answer.

Hermione returned the encyclopedia back to its shelf and spent over fifteen minutes lingering in the magical creatures section. Her arms laden with titles she returned to her search, reading right through lunch. Still nothing. Not one mention of a supposed tree elf.

It took her several trips to return the all of the books that she had accumulated and she left the library feeling defeated.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team had taken over the common room by the time she arrived. Ron, Harry and Ginny were laughing and joking in the corner, and Harry grinned widely when he saw Hermione before waving her over.

"Practice went well then?" she questioned as she greeted them.

"Yeah, everyone gelled really well," Harry grinned.

"You should've seen us, Hermione; we're gonna win the cup this year, I just know it." Ron interrupted excitedly.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far just yet, but we are pretty decent," Harry said with pride.

Hermione switched off a little but resisted reaching into her rucksack for a book, as her friends launched into talk of tactics and moves, and winning the house cup

They snuggled up around the roaring fireplace, basking in its warmth, laughing and chatting for what seemed the first time in ages. She felt like she did not spend enough time with her friends lately, especially Ginny.

Ron, Harry and Hermione had all struggled with their ever increasing N.E.W.T. workload .It was nice to have an afternoon forgetting about work, for once.

"I can't wait for the feast tonight," Ron grinned interrupting.

"Do you think about anything else but food?" Ginny mocked elbowing him quite fiercely in the ribs.

"Ow," Ron winced clutching at his side before lashing out at his retaliation. He groaned as she dodged it. "I wasn't on about the food anyway. I love Halloween,"

Hermione nodded. "Me too, even though Halloween was never really a big thing for me growing up."

"Really?" Ron guffawed. "Mum always made us celebrate it,"

"I think it's different for Muggles," she replied.

Ron nodded taking in the new information, despite both of his friends growing up in the Muggle world, he was quite ignorant of their lives.

"Don't muggles celebrate Halloween at all then?" he questioned.

"Some do," Hermione affirmed. "Muggle children go trick or treating."

"Trick or treating? What's that?"

Harry laughed as he answered, "Well muggle children get dressed up as various monsters and go knocking on their neighbour's door for sweets."

"Really? They go begging for sweets… That's awesome. What kind of monsters do they dress up as? All mum did for Halloween was cook a special dinner," he moaned.

Hermione chuckled to herself. She had often suspected that Arthur Weasley's fascination with Muggles had rubbed off a little of his son. There had been many times Harry or Hermione had casually mentioned something muggle, and Ron followed up with a hundred questions. Once Harry had mentioned his cousin Dudley's Playstation, and he did not hear the end of it for weeks. Ron had wanted Harry to steal it and bring it to school for them to play in the evenings but Hermione quickly shot down this idea after reminding him that electrical items do not work at Hogwarts due to the magical interference. He had sulked for a few days after.

Harry and Ron whiled away the afternoon with several games of wizarding chess while Hermione and Ginny chatted excitedly about the upcoming Hogsmeade visit and caught up on each other's gossip.

As soon as darkness threatened the daylight, sparks flickered on the floating torches before they burst into flame. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were some of the last to leave as the Gryffindor students began to filter out of the Common Room.

"Shall we go down," Ron asked, looking hopeful.

"Come on then," Ginny huffed, rolling her eyes.

The Great Hall had been transformed for the occasion decorated with orange streamers and glowing pumpkins. Above them live bats weaved and bobbed underneath the enchanted ceiling, skulls decorated the tables and cobwebs engulfed the walls.

Hagrid's pumpkins had been carved and were sat all about the room, some of the smaller ones even floated above the tables. Hermione had to push her way through crowds of students who gathered to pick armfuls of toffee apples from the trees placed intermittently between the house tables.

As they took their seats, Hermione and Ginny chuckled at the tiny skeletons that danced the can-can up and down the Gryffindor table. Hundreds of black candles set in grand candelabras illuminated the house tables and much to Ron's chagrin, the enchanted toy spiders that scuttled about the plates.

He edged away from the table in his seat moaning, "They better stop when we eat,"

The room grew silent as the Headmaster rose from his chair to address them all.

"Happy Halloween," he started, beaming across the hall. "As you may know, All Hallow's Eve was traditionally a festival to remember and celebrate the lives of our loved ones and the recently departed. During these dark times, I think it prudent for us to take a moment to remember those who have sacrificed their lives in the name of good and justice." The Headmaster regarded the room solemnly before Hermione noticed a twinkle in his eye as he gave them a warm smile. "However, Halloween is also a time for celebration and childish folly so without further adieu, let's pig out and have fun." With his words, the table's filled with dishes of delectable food as students, from all houses, cheered.

Everyone dug in filling their plates with various meats and pies, vegetables and sides. Ron moaned with longing as he admired his tower of food, but before he could thrust his fork in, an enchanted spider ran across his plate, settling on a mound of buttery mashed potato.

"Well I'm not eating that," he moaned pushing the plate away.

His friends laughed. "Ron, refusing food. I never thought I'd see the day," Harry gasped mockingly.

Ginny laughed as she held out her hand for Harry to shake it. "I bet you ten sickle he eats it anyway."

"You're on," Harry shook her hand to confirm it, looking confident of his winnings. There was nothing more on this earth that Ron hated more than spiders.

Ron's face grew redder by the minute at his friends joking as he resisted the food. Hermione saw his longing glances, but he seemed determined not to prove his sister right.

Temptation proved to be too much, and Ron finally gave in to his stomach's urges with a huff, picking at his food like a child told to eat their vegetables. Ginny and Harry were doubled over on the bench howling with laughter, their faces inches from the plates of food. Hermione at least tried to suppress her giggles to save her friend's feelings, though her efforts did not amount to much as she found herself unable to hold them in for long.

Ginny held out her her waiting palm to Harry. "You owe me ten sickles, Potter," she demanded jokingly.

All of the tension that had been building up in her shoulders and neck, for the past few months melted away as she enjoyed forgetting everything just for one day and being a normal kid with her friends.

After dessert had arrived and been consumed, hums of confusion and curiosity filled the hall as the teachers vacated their table and moved into the crowd of students,

With a wave of his wand, Dumbledore forced the the teacher's table back to be piled up against the wall. He instructed everyone else to stand up from their seats and repeated the action with each of the house tables. The confusion was replaced with gasps of excitement and screams of joy as five stunning witches burst out of the door next to where the teacher's table had sat.

"It gives me the greatest pleasure to introduce to the band that has rapidly been overtaking our airwaves. Let's all give a warm welcome to music's newest superstars, The Coven," Dumbledore shouted over the chattering crowd. The light dimmed as five stunningly beautiful witches took their positions on the stage and began to sing a number of catchy melodies; all with accompanying dance moves.

"Come on let's dance," Ginny begged, dragging Hermione to the front of the hall where hundreds of other students were already lost in the music.

The temperature of the room did not stop rising as the masses of students congregated aound the stage, jumping and twisting about. Ginny pulled Hermione from the crowd to get a drink from the fountain that flowed with a neon pink punch. Harry and Ron awkwardly hung around the drinks area looking uncomfortable at the random displays of dancing bursting out across the room. "Come and dance," Ginny said before gulping down her glass of punch.

Ron scoffed. "No!"

"Come on, it's fun," Hermione begged.

"I don't think so, Hermione," Harry looked at her as if she was asking him to carve her initials into her flesh, but she had seen him nodding his head and bopping about with small jerky movements to the music.

She giggled at the thought. If that was how he danced, perhaps it was best that he stay at the sides.

Hermione turned to look around the hall and found herself face to face with Lavender Brown who had seemed to just pop out of nowhere.

Lavender ignored her and bounded straight to Ron's side. "Hi, Ron," she giggled.

"Hi...err… Lavender,"

Lavender fluttered her eyes and twirled her hair as she stared up at him. "Do you want to dance?" She said, finally.

"Come on," Hermione called to Ginny over the music. She couldn't stand to witness this any longer than she had. Hermione lead the way over to Neville and Luna on the dance floor.

They danced to the catchy melodies, jumping and moving like raving loonies. All sense of time was lost in the rhythyn of the music. Hermione ignored her aching feet, knowing she'd regret the pulsating blisters in the morning.

"Well, that's all for tonight but it's been a blast," called out the tall blonde singer as the band finished their song.

"You've been a great audience," her fellow band mate added. "Thank you and goodnight."

The five ladies joined hands and bowed to the cheering crowd as Dumbledore made his way on to the stage. The light in the Great hall grew brighter.

"One last time lets give a hand to The Coven." He called out as he turned to the band and clapped. "Thank you ladies," he said with a bow as they exited through a door to the right of the stage.

Groans intermingled with whoops and cheers amongst the crowd.

Right well it is way past all of our bedtimes so on your way pip, pip."

The light grew brighter as footsteps beat out a scarmbled rhythm across the floor.

"That was awesome," Ginny grinned as she hooked her arm through her

miones and rested her head on her shoulder.

"It was." Hermione chuckled. The two girls fought their way through the crowd to meet up with Harry and Ron who had not moved from the where they had left them.

Lavender ran past them, barging into Hermione as she did.

"Good night Ron,"

"Yeah night," he said with a nod.

Lavender stood staring at him expectantly before suddenly pushing herself on him and kissing him.

Ugh. Hermione broke off from her friends and sloped back to the common room, hidden amongst the crowds.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 _tap...tap...tap_

The hammering of the rain on the window startled Hermione awake. She stretched out before opening her eyes, bones cracking, she moaned. Every muscle in her body hurt and her feet were burning; she knew she would pay for all of that dancing. Thankfully it was Sunday and although she had plenty of work to do, she could do that right here from this bed.

The autumn sun streamed through the windows hurting her eyes, she was momentarily confused, there was not a drop of rain in sight yet something still hammered on the glass. An angry looking owl came into focus pecking on the window.

Hermione rolled over to push herself up and heard the crinkling of paper beneath her ignored the reply and swung herself out of bed to sleepily open the window and let the owl in.

The great brown bird flew in and settled on the headboard of her bed. It held out a leg with a scroll of parchment tied to it. Hermione took the letter and petted the owl gently before it spread its massive wings and took off again. Hermione sat on her bed and I curled the letter.

 _Dear Miss Granger,_

 _Your detention has been arranged for 8 pm tonight with Professor McGonagall in the Transfiguration classroom._

 _Yours,_

 _Professor Horace Slughorn_

Hermione had been dreading facing Professor Slughorn again but after reading his note she would have gladly seen him. She adored Professor McGonagall, the woman was her favourite teacher but somehow that made Hermione feel ten times worse. How could she face the woman's looks of disapproval? How could she explain why she had snapped?

Hermione had always hated letting people down especially those who do so much to help her. Placing gene letter on her night stand Hermione tried not to think anymore of it.

She reached for the other letter sitting on her pillow. She had no desire to read it. At least in her detention tonight she could talk to Professor McGonagall about getting out of the assignment. Hermione pulled the scrap of parchment from its envelope.

 ** _Just get on with the assignment and talk._**

Hermione couldn't believe what she was reading. Talk about blowing hot and cold. She hastily reached for a sheet of parchment and her self inking quill.

 _Look we both know that this is not working. You have made it clear countless times that you have no desire to talk to me so just go and talk to your head of house and hopefully we won't have to do this anymore._

Hermione slipped of her dressing gown and slippers and stormed down to the noisy common to shove the letter in the postbox before storming back up to her bed.

Seconds after she had sat back down on her bed with her Arithmancy textbook something hit Hermione on the head. Another letter. She looked up, but there was nothing except the frame of her four poster bed.

 ** _And what exactly is my head of house going to do? Put me with someone else? I mean you irritate the hell out of me with your perkiness and inane chatter but who is to say who they will put me with next. You and I have an understanding. I can't go through all of this again._**

 ** _So no I will not be talking with my head of house._**

 ** _Face it you are stuck with me so just talk._**

Hermione leant on her textbook to write.

 _Maybe that would be for the best. You never know you may actually find someone that you want to talk too instead being lumbered with someone as irritating as me!_

Hermione huffed as she one again ran downstairs to the small blue postbox in the Gryffindor Common.

She saw the reply coming this time as dodged out of the way of the envelope that fell out of the air above her bed.

 ** _Just talk._**

 _Talk about what? You have made it clear that you don't do small talk. I've tried to engage you in a conversation about your interests but you shot me down. I just don't see the point._

 _ **How about you tell me what is wrong with you. isn't that the point of all of this?**_

 _What's wrong with me? Although I am sure you will have a few witty suggestions, there is nothing wrong with me._

 ** _Yes there is_**

In anger, Hermione poked several holes in the parchement with the nib of her quill.

 _No there is not!_

 _ **Look you've written me a few letters now. I know enough about to gather that you are one of those annoying perky people, always happy and craving friendship. The last letter you wrote me showed me you were defeated. People like you always wear their hearts on their sleeve, you are unable to control your emotions like the rest of us. So once again, tell me what is wrong**_

 _I sounded defeated because of your hesitancy to do this properly nothing else and just because I have tried to be friendly do not assume that you know me._

 ** _I do know you_**

 _How could you possibly know me. I have sent you all of five letters, what you think I'm so simple that you know who I am from a few friendly words? You obviously think you know everything so how about you tell me what is wrong with me_

 _ **Whatever. Don't tell me; it's not like I actually care.**_

Hermione scrunched his, for she had thought her pen pal was a he, no girl could be so surly, letter up and threw it across the room. She had wasted the entire morning arguing, instead catching up on her work. What a waste of time.

Hermione washed and dressed for lunch. After quickly demolishing her food she retreated back to her comfortable bed to try to catch up with the work that she had missed that morning, completely missing dinner to make up for the lost time.

At 7:45 Hermione stowed away her books and left the common room to head to Professor McGonagall's classroom. The brewing guilt, fear, and shame swirled in her stomach, faster and faster as she made her way through the castle.

"Miss Granger," the Professor smiled.

Hermione couldn't bring herself to meet her teachers gaze. "Hello, Professor," she muttered looking around the classroom.

"I have set you up here," Professor McGonagall rose out of her chair and directed Hermione to a desk with a large box sat on it. "I would like you to sort through the stock of Porcupine Spines and discard any that are less than perfect,"

Hermione nodded her understanding.

"It is a menial task but a poor spine produces even poorer results,"

"Okay, Professor," Hermione scraped the chair back across the floor and sat down to start work.

"I must attend a quick staff meeting but should be back within an hour or so."

"Okay," Hermione replied as she looked up at her aging head of house.

The Professor stood eyeing her for a moment before nodding briefly and going back to her desk to retrieve a stack of papers. "Well then, you get to work and I will be back soon,"

Hermione nodded not looking up from the spines that she had already started to sort.

She separated the bent and damaged spines from the perfectly straight and razor sharp one, throwing them into a bin beside her. Her fingers had been pricked so many times that little droplets of blood splattered and stained the wooden table, they were becoming sore already.

Exactly one hour after she had left, Professor McGonagall returned with even more papers than she had left with. "I'm sorry that took so long," she apologised as she took her seat behind her desk to set to work.

The classroom was silent except for the scratching of the Professors quill and the occasional "ow," muttered by Hermione as the two of them went about their work.

"Cup of tea?" The professor asked as she stood up to place a kettle of the fire.

"Yes please, if it is not too much trouble," Hermion replied, setting down the split spine in her hand. Skipping dinner had been a bad idea, her hunger had caught up with her and the thought of filling her stomach with anything, even tea, was a welcoming one.

"Not at all, not at all," Professor McGonagall said with her back turned to Hermione ss she messed about with cups and teapots.

The woman placed a tray co training a teapot, cups, sugar bowl and milk jug on her desk and gestured for her to take the seat in front of the woman's desk.

Hermione swallowed down her dread. The detention had been far easier than she had thought so far but this was it, she was about to receive a talking to.

Professor McGonagall lifted the teapot and poured Hermione a cup first and then herself. She pushed the sugar bowl towards Hermione as she added a dash of milk to hers.

"Biscuit?" Professor McGonagall held out a biscuit tin filled with all of hermiones favourites. She helped herself to a garibaldi

"Have another," the professor said shaking the tin at Hermione.

"Thank you," Hermione scoffed down the biscuits as her professor sipped her steaming cup of tea.

"I have a confession," The professor started finally," I offered to take your detention as I thought it would give us a chance to have a little chat."

Hermione gulped down her mouthful of tea. The liquid scorching her throat.

"I am concerned,"

"Concerned, professor?" Hermione asked innocently.

"Yes. Professor Slughorn informed me of what happened in his class last week. This kind of behaviour is intolerable, Miss Granger,"

"I know Professor. I am so sorry. I don't know what came over me,"

"Your behaviour was so out of character and it led me to think that there is possibly something else that may be troubling you? Your workload perhaps?" Professor McGonagall regarded Hermione from over her glasses.

"Honestly, professor. I am fine, I was just having a bad day and Malfoy really does know how to push my bottoms. I know that is no excuse, but I promise nothing like this will ever happen again.

"I'm sure it will not but that does nothing to alleviate my concerns," The prosessor sat down her cup and clasped her hands together as she rest her elbows on the desk. "I have taken the liberty of speaking with your professors,"

Although Hermione knew that her Head of House had every right to speak with her Professors about her, she did not like the thought of them discussing her and struggled to swallow her irritation.

"And while yes you are still attaining passes, in some of your classes you are just barely scraping by. Your professors and I agree that your workload may be too much."

Hermione looked down into her cup to disguise the tears welling up in her eyes. "It's been a lot to adjust to Professor but I have everything under control now. I promise."

The Professor regarded her kindly and gave her a small smile. "I have been watching you, Miss Granger. You have regularly been skipping meals; you have lost weight and often turn up to class exhausted." Professor McGonagall reached across her desk to fumble with a stack of papers before taking one. "This is your latestest Transfiguration homework," the woman handed Hermione the work which had been recently marked. A big fat Red A glared up at her.

"Usually your work is meticulous, but this is riddled with simple errors and spelling mistakes,"

Hermione wiped her eyes on her sleeve as she handed her homework back to the teacher, unable to look at her failure for one second longer.

"Never before have we had a student take on as many N.E.W.T courses. I knew it would be hard work even for you but I do not like what the pressure is doing to you,"

"Please Professor, I'm fine. It took a while to work out my routine but I think I finally have it,"

"My advice, Miss Granger, would be to drop a couple of your classes,"

Hermione stared wide eyed at her teacher. "Please, Professor. I can't,"

"Can't," the Professor questioned, her brow raised. "Nobody can do everything, Miss Granger,"

Hermiones tears flowed freely as her panic bubbled to the surface. "But, I must," she protested. "I have to learn everything I can,"

"Why?"

"Professor." Hermione met the older woman's concerned gaze. "With everything that is going on, learning is all I can do."

"How do you mean?"

"He is back Professor and things are rapidly getting worse. Harry feels like he is the only one who has to face this war but it is all of us isn't it. I can't pretend that what is happening is not and learning everything I can is all I can do to help."

"Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall regarded her, her eyes full of worry and pity. "As you said, it is up to us all to face this war together. You must not let the weight of it sit on your shoulders alone. You cannot let your fear rule you,"

Her tears stopped as Hermione regarded her teacher seriously. "It is not fear Professor,"

"Then what is it?"

Hermione took a deep breath before replying. "There is going to come a day when Harry will face him again, if I am prepared I will be able to help him. If I am prepared, I might be able to save him,"

Professor McGonagall lifted a finger to the corner of her eye to wipe away a solitary tear. "While I do understand your concern for mr Potter, I must assure you that each and every member of the Order of the Phoenix is working tirelessly to bring about an end to this war and prevent that day from ever happening. But even if you are right, do you think it is helpful to Harry to be making yourself ill in your persuit? Do you not think that he would prefer the friend he knows and lives rather than a zombie who spends every waking hour working? Harry needs you, right now. Nothing else."

Hermione nodded as she struggled to control the bawling that threatened to break out.

"Please consider what I have said about dropping a couple of classes. It does not have to be forever."

Hermione nodded. "I will,"

Professor McGonagall regarded Hermione for just a moment before opening her mouth to speak again. "Good. Right I think you have seen enough Procupine spines for one evening, you may go,"

Hermione gathered her things and turn to retreat back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"And Miss Granger," her professor stopped her. "If you ever need to talk, I am always here."

Hermione smiled. "Thank you, Professor,"

Uncontrollable sobs took hold of her body as soon as the door closed behind her.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

 _Fine you really want to know what's wrong with me?_

 _Look around you, read a newspaper. Just like everyone else, I am scared. The wizarding world may have been at war before, but I haven't. I don't know what to expect and that thought terrifies me. Everyday there are new reports, another attack, and everyday it all seems to be getting a little closer to home._

 _We all feel safe here at the castle but we shouldn't because outside of these walls terrible things are happening._

 _Ever since I have been back there has been a nagging feeling of doom lingering in the back of my mind. Almost as if I am waiting for something big to happen. I can't even escape it when I am asleep. The nightmares are keeping me awake. I lie there night after night, waiting for the hours to whittle by as I listen to my roommates snoring. I'm so exhausted that I can barely function._

 _I've never found school to be particularly difficult but just lately no matter how hard I try, I cannot keep up. My hands are constantly cramping up from all of the writing and my head pounds as I try to focus on yet another paragraph. I have no time for anything else but studying. I skip at least one but ,ostpy two meals everyday just to keep up._

 _I had a detention tonight with my Head of House. I've never had a detention before and I was expecting it to be bad, but it was worse than I ever could have expected. I was told I have been performing so badly this year that I should think about dropping a couple of classes. Drop a couple of classes!! I am not that person but I don't know what else I can do. I am physically and mentally exhausted._

 _And I miss my friends but things between us seem more distant than ever before. Whether that's because of me and my lack of time, or them, I am not entirely sure._

 _One of them is going through a tough time right now but instead of letting me in, he seems to be pushing me away. He talks and he is friendly but it is always general chit chat, never anything more. It's almost as if it makes him appear weak to show his pain but why can't he see that I just want to help. Hell, I'd do anything even just to comfort him. My other friends are useless here, they see his smile and dismiss all concerns for his well being. But he is hurting._

 _The one is just useless full stop. He's off with his girlfriend all of the time just lately and even when he is not, she is there hanging around him. I am never free of her!_

 _I don't understand what he sees in her to be honest. She doesn't have an interesting bone in her body, nor a nice one. She is vain and self centred and bullies everyone around her to make her feel better about herself, she even teases her only friend. I don't know how anyone can put up with her._

 _Just the thought of her makes my skin crawl. How will I ever be able to spend time with my friend if I cannot stand to be around her. I feel like he has a choice, me or her but I am the one who is losing. So what do I do? Admit defeat, call time on our once deep friendship or suck it up and try to put up with a person I detest for the sake of his happiness? I honestly don't know which is the worse option._

 _And then there is you. When Dumbledore announced this assignment, I was one of the few who was truly excited by it. I have wanted a pen pal ever since I was a little girl, and you have turned out to be such a disappointment. I, stupidly, thought that this would be a good thing, that I could forge a bond like no other with someone but I got you. You, who hates this and me. You, who is so unwilling to enter in even the most meaningless conversation. It's deflating to be honest._

 _I'm sure I have many snide remarks coming my way for sending this but you did ask!_

Her writing was messy and frantic and blobs of ink had been blotted by her tears. Her hands scribbled frantically as they tried to keep up with her thoughts. Hermione stuffed the parchment carelessly into an envelope without sealing and quietly crept downstairs to thrust it into the postbox.

Writing everything down had such a cathartic effect but when her head hit the pillow her mind began racing. How could she have sent that! She had been so deflated and in despair when she had written it but all she felt now was cold.

She had just let it all pour out, she bared her soul to this person who held her in such contempt.

She wondered for just a moment if she would be able to go down and retrieve it, but she knew that the post box was charmed to deliver any mail instantly. She sighed.

Hermione listened to the wind, rustling through the trees and a distant screeching of an owl until finally she drifted off to sleep.

X

 _pan fydd y oeri yn yr awyr yn tyfu,_

 _ceisiwch hi_

 _lle mae bywyd natur yn cwrdd â dwyfol_

 _cwrdd â hi yn y tiroedd sanctaidd_

 _hi'n galw arnoch chi_

The sweet harmony sang through the trees. It was dark. She stumbled on tree roots as she felt her way through the trees. A glimmer of light shone ahead calling her. She followed the light as the melodious high pitched chanting grew louder and louder. Hermione found her way to the source, a clearing, she stepped between two huge tree trunks and found herself in a clearing. The light of the moon shone brightly here, highlighting the source of the song. Hundreds of tiny elf like creatures stood hand to hand in a circle around the meadow, chanting in unison. Hermione slowly approached them but the creatures took no notice. Not one of them turned to face her as she moved around the circle. 

_pan fydd y oeri yn yr awyr yn tyfu,_

 _ceisiwch hi_

 _lle mae bywyd natur yn cwrdd â dwyfol_

 _cwrdd â hi yn y tiroedd sanctaidd_

 _hi'n galw arnoch chi_

Hermione stopped to focus on the words the elves were chanting but the were not spoken in any language that she knew.

A familiar elf broke the circle and turned to face her.

Hermione jerked back as she gazed at her.

"She calls you, Miss. She calls on you," the elf whispered.

X

"Blathenued," Hermione mumbled as the sight of her again shook Hermione awake. Hermione stared up at the ceiling of her dorm room unable to skate the image of the elfs stare. As she rolled over onto her side and felt the crumpling of parchment beneath her ear. Hermione sighed before fishing the reply out from beneath her head. She tossed it on the floor beside her bed and pulled her blanket up around her. It could wait until morning.

 _You let your emotions get the better of you, do you know that? It's no wonder you are failing in class. You are so consumed by your teenage angst and self pity that you haven't got time for school as well._

 _It's time to grow up and think about your problems rationally._

 _It is sickeningly obvious that you are in love with your friend. Why else would you hate this girl so much? Your jealousy is so obvious in the way that you blather on about her. You are a pathetic cliche, you know._

 _Either stop pining over him and tell him, or just deal with the fact that he is into someone else._

 _And as for your other friend they just want space. Can't you see that? Stop trying to interfere- nobody likes a busybody especially so,done who just wants to be left alone._

 _So what? You are failing a few classes. School isn't everything and it certainly is how you learn everything. Just deal with it and drop them. A few outstanding results is better than more acceptable ones._

 _Your worries about the war are fruitless. Yes it is happening and there is nothing that anyone can do to stop him but really how is that your problem? How is that affecting you right now? It's not really anything to do with you is it?_

 _I am assuming this is why you are having nightmares. I recommend taking a sleeping draught; it's a guaranteed dreamless sleep. Madame Pomfrey will prescribe it if you ask._

 _Most importantly, you seriously need to stop overthinking things and just get a life._


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Hermione had been avoiding doing this for days. As much as she loved Hagrid and loved spending time with him, she had tried to dodge his gaze when he had been trying to catch her attention at dinner last night but her attempts had failed and he had invited her for a cup of tea this morning.

The panic rose within her as she made her way through the castle grounds to break the news to her friend that she would not be carrying on with Care of Magical Creatures.

"'ermione," he beamed as he beckoned her in.

Fang sniffed around her and followed her to her seat. When she sat down she stroked the enormous dog. Fang jumped up on to her as his gigantic, slobbering tongue licked her face. She struggled against his weight pressing down on her to wipe her face.

"Down, fang," Hagrid snarled. The dog looked up at him wit his huge drooping eyes as Hagrid rolled his. "Stupid dog," he muttered as he moved over to pet him.

Hermione watched as Hagrid clambered about making two extra large mugs of tea. He sat the two extreme stong teas on the table and sat down in his armchair beside her.

"It's good t' see ye," Hagrid smiled.

Hermione flushed. "I'm sorry I haven't been down in a while," she started

Hagrid interrupted. "It's alright, Hermione. I know." He nodded and smiled kindly.

"I just…"

"It's fine. I've spoken to Professor McGonagall, I know."

"I'm sorry," she replied as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"It's okay," Hagrid reassured her. "You've got to do this for you, 'ermione, no one else."

Hermione nodded as she smiled at the unmeasurably kind man. "Thank you, Hagrid."

"Don' think on it," he waved her off. "So how're things goin' now?"

"Good so far, I think,"

Hermione relaxed and enjoyed catching up with her friend. Hagrid could chatter away for hours, which suited Hermione. She had always preferred to be a listener.

"I almos' forgo' to tell ye," he said as he sat forward with a gleam of excitement in his eyes. "I've spoken to tha' bloke again,"

Hermione looked at him blankly for a moment as she struggled to catch on.

"Yeh know about the elf," He nodded with encouragement.

"Oh, yeah," Hermione had tried to push all memory of her from her mind. She'd had the same dream now every night for a week, that elfs gaze haunted her so she wasn't all that keen to relive the memory of their meeting.

"Well 'es keen to go, wants to search the forest. I've arranged it for nex' Saturday. Ye can come if you like," he said hopefully.

Hermione downed three mugs of tea before she could no longer ignore the pains of hunger. She had skipped breakfast to visit Hagrid and missed dinner last night. Hagrid offered her a plate of his homemade rock cakes but she could hear her parents warnings about her teeth ringing in her ears and politely declined.

"I should get going for lunch," she said as she set her cup down.

"Yeh, I'll walk up wi' ye, hang on," Hagrid turned his back to her and fiddled about with something in his pocket before placing several items on his bed.

"Come on then,"

Hermione wrapped her cloak tightly around her to shield herself from the icy bite to the wind. It was time to dig out the winter cloak, she thought. Hermione jogged to keep up with Hagrid's massive strides but was grateful, anything to get back to the castle as fast as possible.

Hagrid waved goodbye as she went off down the Gryffindor table and he to the teachers table. The only space she could squeeze into was next to Lavender Brown who sat with her back to her snogging Ron.

"There's food here," Hermione muttered to herself.

"I know it's terrible Harry,"

Hermione looked up to see Ginny reaching across the table trying to comfort Harry. He was sat rigid with his elbows on the tables and his fists balled as he nervously bit the nail of his one exposed thumb.

"What is it? What's happened?" Hermione gasped.

Ginny turned to her, "Haven't you heard the news?" She rustled in her rucksack and pulled out the mornings edition of the daily prophet. She thrust it at Hermione.

 _ **Beloved Landlady Reported Missing**_

 _Madame Rosemerta, Landlady of The Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade was reported missing late last night by concerned bar staff._

 _"She went out the back at about 10pm to take the rubbish out and just never came back," Bar man Steven Turvey told us. "There was no sign of a disturbance or anything. It was like she just vanished into thin air,"_

 _Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister for Magic released this statement early this morning._

 _"While this latest disappearance comes as a shock to us all, I urge you not to_ _jump to any conclusions. There is no evidence of foul play in the disappearance of Madame Rosemerta and reports of sightings of the dark mark are entirely false and should not be believed. The ministry is doing all that we can to investigate the circumstances and we are optimistic that our beloved Landlady will soon be found."_

 _The Minster's words do not reassure us here at The Daily Prophet. In times like these it is all too easy to jump to conclusions. Madame Rosemerta is a skilled witch renowned for her duelling skills. What other explanation can there be if not the work of You-know-who?_

 _Of course this news is all the more troubling when one thinks of the close proximity of this attack to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardary. Concerned parents will be devastated by this latest blow and it would be no surprise if the school sees a sudden drop in the number of students._

"That's terrible," Hermione said as she put the paper down. No one responded. Ron was still locked in a rather slobbery looking embrace beside her and Ginny had turned to speak with her friend who sat a few seats down.

"Are you okay, Harry," Hermione asked as she leant to see him.

""Yeah, I'm fine," he muttered without returning her gaze. The plate in front of him was empty, he made no effort of a pretence of an appetite.

Harry turned to nudge Ron.

Ron pulled himself away from the reluctant Lavender to turn to his friend. Harry whispered something to him.

Hermione felt something stab through her heart. Rejection, perhaps?

Ron nodded before turning back to his girlfriend.

Lavender leant in to carry on where they had left off but Ron held her back.

"Err, can you err… can you give us a minute? You know...alone," he stuttered.

Lavender was overly dramatic in her offence and stormed away from the table. Ron shrugged.

"Good," Harry sighed but Ron did not notice.

Hermione inched in closer to Ron as Harry spoke to them.

"Can you meet me in the library during dinner?" He asked them

"During dinner?" Ron spluttered. "But we've gotta eat,"

Harry pointed to Ron's plate that was piled high with sandwiches, sausage rolls and pork pies. "What are you doing now? Yes during dinner. I want to be alone."

"Yeah but.." Ron started but Hermione interrupted.

"Why Harry?"

"We need to talk,"

"Okay," she nodded with curiosity. Ron remained silent but nodded his agreement too.

Harry and Ron were still in the Great Hall when she left and she didn't see either of them again until dinner.

She spent her afternoon studying in the only place she was guaranteed any peace, her bed. She really should have been writing her letter, her week limit was up in just a few hours but as much as she did not want to be penalised she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was mortified at her mini breakdown but she was even more mortified with the response.

For someone who protested he could read her well got her entirely wrong. He was so pig-ignorant.

How could she reply now? What could she say?

Hermione pushed the thought to the back of her mind.

Harry was already in the library when she arrived. Hermione took a seat at his table. "What's this about Harry?"

"We may as well wait for Ron," he replied stiffly clutching his back-back.

The only spin on the library was that of Harry's foot tapping as they sat waiting for Ron. Five minutes late, he casually strolled in.

"Everything alright mate?" Ron asked as he sank into a chair.

"Yeah, Harry, are you going to tells us what is going on?"

Harry pulled the mornings edition of the daily prophet and pointed to the article on the disappearance of made Rosemary's "this," he said as he reached into his back to pull out what appeared to be a stack of articles ripped out from the paper, "and this...and this," he said as he laid them all out on the table.

Hermione scanned the articles, all were reports of disappearances and attacks.

"Can't you see they are all connected and he is targeting them one by one," Harry said desperately trying to get them to see the connection that he had already made.

Hermione chewed on her lip as she looked around the table. "I'm sorry Harry but I don't see it'"

"This one." Harry angrily pointed his finger at a picture of a smiling, waving middle aged man. "Adrian Witten, he used to be in the Order of the Phoenix."

"How do you know," Ron muttered.

Harry looked up from the table and replied seriously. "I saw him in an old photo, Madame Rosmerta too. And this one," he grabbed another article. "Mr Toadbank, he was an old colleague of Dumbledore's,"

Hermione stared at Harry, still not seeing the connection, other than they were the ones fighting _him_. Harry rolled his eyes slightly as he turned to Hermione.

"It's obvious isn't it, he's coming after me."

"Oh, Harry. I mean it's entirely possible that you know who is targeting these people because of the order but it doesn't necessarily mean he's coming after you." She tried to reassure him.

"How can you believe that after what I told you, Hermione."

Ever since the day Harry had told her of the prophecy, Hermione had thought and researched about it for hours and she still wasn't sure what to think. But Harry was right if Voldemort believed in it, he was certainly going to seek Harry out at some point but she didn't believe that he would do it now, while Harry was still at Hogwarts, whilst he was still under Dumbledore s protection. Didn't they say that Dumbledore was the only wizard alive that scared him? And Harry did have a tendency to jump Head first into his theories without properly analysing the situation.

Hermione eyed her friend sceptically.

Harry huffed. "I know he is coming, Hermione, believe me."

"But... but what are you gonna do," Ron spluttered.

Harry looked down at the articles spread out on the table and sighed. "I don't know yet. I need a plan."

Ron turned to Hermione expectantly.

"Don't look at me," she scoffed.

"But you're always the one who solves these kinds of things." He replied looking at her optimistically.

Hermione ignored Ron and focused on Harry. "Look I understand where you are coming from Harry but we are not actually sure yet, that he is coming for you."

Harry looked up and glared at her. "He is Hermione,"

"You don't know that," she said her voice getting louder.

A dark look took over his face as he replied. "I hope he does and soon before anyone else gets hurt," Harry spat.

Ron gasped.

"Harry you don't mean that," Hermione shrieked.

"Yes I do. People are getting killed because of me. I need to find a way to stop him before someone else dies. Who is going to be next? You, Ron, Ginny, Lupin? I can't let that happen."

Hermione took a step towards her friend and reached out to touch his hand comfortingly. "Harry these people are not dying because of you. You cannot shoulder the blame for the terrible things that are happening. They are down to _him_ and _his_ band of maniacal followers no one else. It is not down to you to protect us all,"

"Of course it's down to me," Harry erupted with anger. " _Neither can live while the other survives._ What else do you think that means. This has been down to me since before I was born,"

"Harry, you are giving to much credence to this prophecy. Trelawney is a proven old fraud; even Professor McGonagall says the subject should be taken with a pinch of salt."

Harry looked down at the table, shaking his head; his fingers were whites as they curled into a fist. "Even Dumbledore says it's true,"

Hermione could not control her rage, with her shoulders squared she stood erect and defensive. How could he not see what she saw? He was being irrational. She had thought Harry would have learnt his lesson after what had happened at the Ministry but here he was again.

His attitude scared her. She feared for the day he would do something stupid but it seemed to be creeping closer and closer.

"No! From what you told me, Dumbledore said that because he believed in the prophecy, _you-know-who_ sought you out and tried to kill you when you were a baby."

"What does it matter, Hermione? Whether the prophecy is true or because he believes in it he is coming for me, why are you not understanding that?"

Hermione shook her head with disbelief. "It does matter, Harry," she protested.

"How, Hermione? What difference could that possibly make?" Harry scoffed. "Voldemort still wants to kill me."

"Yes he does Harry, because he believes in the prophecy,"

Harry scoffed and stared at her blankly. "Exactly,"

Hermione continued ingnoring the interruption. "But that does not make it real. You saw the hall of prophecies, there were hundreds of thousands of predictions and only a select few had ever rung true. _You-know-who_ might be after you, Harry. If he puts any stock in divination and prophecy, he almost certainly is- but that does not mean that you have to go after him."

"What?" Harry spluttered. "You're not making any sense,"

"I'm making perfect sense. Yes; just because he believes in the prophecy but that doesn't make it true. Can't you see the difference? You don't have to go after him. The order are working to fight him, the Ministry are too, well… It is not down to you alone to stop to him just because he believes it is."

"If you don't want to help me that's fine," Harry spat as he roughly gathered up his newspaper clippings and stuffed them into the inside pocket of his robes. "I'll find a way to do it on my own,"

"Harry, you're not listening to me…" Hermione started but before she could say any more Harry had stored off towards the library's exit.

Ron hovered for a moment torn over what to do. He turned to Hermione with a sympathetic smile and shrug before ultimately deciding to follow his friend to the exit.

Hermione watched them leave as tears of frustration welled up and began to flow down her cheeks.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

 _I apologise for my last letter but I think the less said about that the better. If you are serious about doing this we need to find something neutral to write about, something light._

 _I have mentioned before that I enjoy reading. With this letter I will send one of my favourite books: The Hobbit. I am not sure if you have heard of it, it is a very famous muggle book._

 _I thought you might like to read it. Let me know what you think of it._

* * *

"Lumos, " Hermione pointed the light of her wand on to her essay praying that its glare wouldn't wake her suitemates.

Her eyes rapidly scanned the foot and a half long homework as she searched for the mistake that she was sure was there. With her quill in hand, she scratched through the words and rewrote entire sections at a time.

Finally, after reading it through several more times, she was satisfied and rolled up the parchment to stow away until tomorrow.

A flicker of something caught her eye as she reached for her rucksack. She looked up to see two familiar orb like eyes staring back at her through the window of the Gryffindor tower. As fast as she could blink, the eyes had disappeared. Hermione sat rigid on the side of her bed looking out into the darkness for what could have been hours.

She had seen those eyes to many times before in her dreams. That damn elf.

Hermione had thought nothing of her first encounter with Blathenuedd but she had dreamt of those eyes and her squeaky words night after night for weeks. Was it all just a coincidence or did this actually mean something?

Just a few years ago Hermione would have brushed off this question without a second thought but no matter how absurd it was, she just couldn't shake the feeling that this was somehow different.

"Nox, " Hermione whispered as she crawled under her blanket and curled up, staring ahead and watching the shadow of her snoring housemate. She fought against her tired drooping eyes; she couldn't face seeing Blathenuedd again just yet.

"Right then, books away, class dismissed," Professor McGonagall called out to the class.

As the stools scraped and the students began to trickle out the professor approached Hermione. She gasped as her teacher gently tapped her on the shoulder. Hermione turned to face her.

"Could you stay behind a minute please, Miss Granger?" The woman asked.

"Yes Professor,"

Hermione packed away her things and waited nervously for the last of her classmates to leave before she approached Professor McGonagall's desk.

"Is everything okay, Hermione?" The woman asked with a kind smile.

Hermione fidgeted with the cuffs of her robes as she replied. "Yes professor."

"There is nothing bothering you? Nothing you want to talk about?" The teacher pressed as she looked at Hermione over her glasses. Hermione felt as if the woman was looking straight into her soul.

Hermione shook her head gently as she glanced down at the floor. Thoughts of Blathenuedd swam to the surface but she would never confess this to her head of house, or anyone for that matter; they'd think she'd gone mad.

"You did not seem yourself in class today, in fact you haven't for some time. I would have thought that reducing your workload would have helped but if you are still struggling you must allow me to hell,"

"I am fine, Professor. Honestly, " Hermione reassured her. "It has taken me a while to catch up but I'm in a good rhythm now."

"Very well then," the woman nodded. "How are things between you and your friends. I haven't noticed about with them much at all lately."

Hermione looked up to meet McGonagall's worried gaze and shrugged. "Not great, " she admitted.

Professor McGonagall sighed and shook her head with disappointment. "What have they done?" She asked as if she were dreading the answer.

Hermione gave her teacher a weak smile. "Nothing really, they just don't listen," she replied vaguely.

"Oh Well, I am afraid to say that it is a common trait amongst their sex," she smiled.

"Yeah, I've noticed," Hermione chuckled.

Professor McGonagall's warm smile gave way to a worried gaze as a silence grew between them. "Well anyway, if there is anything I can help you with I hope you would ask,"

Hermione felt a rush of affection towards her head of house. Professor McGonagall had always been her favourite teacher because of moments like this. Hermione smiled.

"Of course I would, Professor,"

Professor McGonagall nodded stiffly and Hermione swore that the woman's cheeks blushed ever so slightly.

"I do just want to help,"

"I know , Professor. Thank you," Hermione replied with genuine affection.

"I mustn't keep you. There's not much time to get ready for dinner." Her teacher smiled as she watched Hermione go.

Hermione shot out of the classroom her mind buzzing with thoughts.

Professor McGonagall was not the one who could help her, but there was someone who could.

How did she not think of it before.

Suddenly the missing link of her thoughts pieced together a plan.

As she entered the great hall Hermione headed directly ahead towards the teachers table ignoring her fellow Gryffindors sat across the hall.

Professor Snape sneered as she approached and Professor McGonagall gave her a quizzical glance.

Hermione smiled at them before heading for Hagrid who sat at the far end of the table.

"Hagrid, can I speak with you for a second?" She asked

"O' course, 'ermione. Wha's up?"

Hermione leant in a little and spoke quietly to stop from being heard by the whole staff sat behind them. "You mentioned before that you are taking that man to search the forest,"

"Ye' Hagrid grinned enthusiastically. 'E's coming early Saturday afternoon."

"Would you mind if I joined you?"

"Mind? Well o' course ye can come. It'll be good t' have you there, he can talk to 'im."

"Great. What time shall I meet you?"

Hagrid stroked his wild beard. "About threeish, I reckon. Mr Monsignor is comin' 'bout half two. I figure we'll have a cup o' tea and then set off."

"Okay," Hermione smiled. ""Thanks Hagrid,"

"What was that about?" Ginny asked as Hermione took the seat beside her?

I'm nothing it's just something I'm working on with Hagrid

"Oh God no, like what?" she gasped before giggling

"Oh its nothing like that," Hermione assures her as she began to ladle vegetables on to her plate.

"Good."

As she helped herself to a slice of chicken and leek pie, Hermione quickly glanced across the table to where Harry sat.

He glared down into his bowl of stew as he furiously stabbed the chunks of meat.

He had not spoken to her since she had disagreed with him in the library.

Ever since he had refused to even acknowledge her. It hurt that he could treat her this way. She always only has his best interests at heart, how could he not know that? He was her best friend! They'd had disagreements before but never before had he acted with such contempt towards her.

She didn't quite know what she had done to deserve it.

In what was fast becoming her routine, Hermione quickly finished her food and retreated together dorm to avoid the atmosphere.

Hermione's heart sank when she saw her book returned with a letter attached to it. There was no possible way he could have read it yet. She reluctantly tore open the envelope.

 _If you want to play it this way fine but you'll have to try again, I've read this hundreds of times._

Hermione chuckled and took his reply as a challenge. She sat on the side of her bed and tossed the letter beside her before bending down and pulling out her trunk from beneath her.

Hermione knelt down on the floor as she excitedly piled up dozens of books debating what to send.

It was such a hard choice but finally she settled on a series of books, her absolute childhood favourite. The Chronicles Of Narnia collection.

Hermione hurriedly wrapped the books up in brown paper and scribbled a note on a scrap of parchment which she tucked under the string.

 _How about these?_

Several days passed and still her books had not been returned to her. Hermione could only assume that he was actually reading them and she smiled at the thought.

Snow had begun to fall as winter truly set in at the castle. Hermione's shoes were wet through to her socks and even her thick winter cloak failed to keep out the chill. She picked up her pace as she rushed to get to Hagrid's, out of the cold even for just a moment.

'Ermione ye made it," Hagrid grinned. "This is Phillipe Monsignor,"

Hermione shook his hand and took a minute to take him in. The man was tall, tanned and blonde with a skinny moustache and despite his name gave the air of someone incredibly aristocratic and British.

He was dressed from head to toe in what could only be described as safari gear including the wide brimmed hat. He stood looking at Hagrid expectantly, ignoring Hermione completely, and rocked back and forth on his heels nervously. Phillipe gingerly extended two fingers for Hermione to shake without turning to look at her. "Well shall we go?" he said to Hagrid.

"Er, yeh," Hagrid stuttered before moving to gather his coat and crossbow. "'Ermione is the one who I've been telling ye about. She was with me," he said as he lead them out of his hut.

"Ah yes, very good." The man replied silkily as he turned to eye her. Something about him made Hermione shiver but she ignored it and followed the men out of hagrid's hut and into the castle grounds.

"Which way is it then?" Phillipe asked as he rubbed his hands together eagerly.

"Follo' me," Hagrid replied as he strode off towards the Forbidden Forest.

"This is very interesting place you have here Hagrid. Such a rich bioculture," the man muttered as he eagerly took in everything around him.

"Err thank you, I jus look after it though. I have breed a number of species, mind, which now live in here," Hagrid blushed as he led them down a well trodden path through the thicket of trees.

"Yes very interesting indeed. We may have to talk about that some time."

"Any time," Hagrid replied brimming with enthusiasm. "Any time,"

Phillipe stopped and knelt down to examine a hairy looking shrub. "Is this oxenweed? This is rare," he asked as he stood up to reach into his brown leather satchel for a small notebook and quill. He jotted furiously before bending down to take another look.

"Professor Sprout, our herbology teacher keeps a few things out here,"

"Do you know what else she has?" He asked

Hagrid shrugged and grunted.

Their path soon disappeared as they walked deeper through the trees. "Lumos Maxima," Hermione whispered as she stretched out her wand to illuminate the exposed tree roots threatening her path.

"What is it that you do, Mr Monsignor?" She asked as the pair of them trotted behind Hagrid trying to keep up with his giant strides.

"Phillipe, please," he said, waving his hand. "My family runs an extremely successful investigatory laboratory. We are experts in the field of Detection spells and work closely with the ministry, though our resources far out strip theirs," he chuckled to himself. "I am the one who collects various samples needed for investigation. I travel all over the world collecting all various types of objects,"

"I bet that is a fascinating line of work, " Hermione replied politely.

"Yes it is,"

"So is that why you are here? Because your company wants to investigate the tree elf?

"Good grief no. Did Hagrid not tell you how he found me?"

"no, " she said feigning interest.

"i work for my families company because that is what is expected of me but my true passion is journalism. I wrote a column on Muthucal creatires in a bi monthly magazine. 'Fascinating Creatures'."

"Oh," Hermione muttered as she tried to hurry her pace yet not come across as impolite to Pierre.

She walked ahead of the man but was still within earshot as he continued. She grimaced as the distance between the two of them and hagrid seemed to grow larger.

"When I received Hagrids letter, I knew there was no possible way I could pass up the chance to investigate, "

Hagrid fearlessly strode into the shadow of the trees. Panicked, Hermione picked up her pace to catch up to him with her wand extended to cast her light. Phillipe lagged behind

"Wait up," he called but Hermione recognised this part of the forest and her focus switched to searching every gap in the trees and the fallen leaves on the floor. They were getting close to her.

Hagrid bubbled with excitement as he urged them deeper into the heart is the forest but suddenly stopped as his head turned to the side sharply.

Galloping hooves stomped against the ground as they charged ever closer to them.

"Yaa, " Phillipe yelped as the hooves began to gallop on a circle around them.

Hermione stood deadly still and pointed her wand to the ground but kept the light.

"don' mind them, " Hagrid brushed off Phillipes fearfully wittering.

"wha...what are they?" the quivering man stuttered.

"Centaurs," Hagrid replied calmly. "They mean is no harm, this is just a warning."

"A warning?" Phillips shrieked. "A warning for what?"

Hagrid waved his hand to dismiss their impending danger. "It's nothing to worry about. They are a very noble and dominant breed Centaurs, but they mean is no harm. As long as you treat them with respect and don't mess in their affairs, they'll leave you alone."

"Are we messing in their affairs right now?" Phillipe muttered nervously

"No, o' course not. They'll be off in a minute, all's good." Hagrid reassured them.

Hermione's heart was pounding in her chest, her last meeting with the Centaurs did not go so well. She wasn't so sure that they would take too kindly to her presence here in their territory but Hagrid was right and soon enough they galloped off through the trees.

Hagrid set off onto the trees, as of nothing had happened leaving Hermione to cautiously follow him.

Phillipe jogged to catch up with them as he fearfully scanned the forest. "How far now?" He groaned

Hagrid turned to him with a cheerful grin. "Not far I don't think. It's difficult to tell, it all looks the same see." he shrugged.

Phillipe's lips parted slightly as he glared at Hagrid. "You mean to tell me you don't know where you are going?" he spat. "You bring me out here where crazed creatures run wild and you don't even know where we are going! I cannot believe it,"

"Well I know we was heading in this direction weren't we 'ermione,"

"Uh huh, " Hermione nodded distantly as her eyes searched the dense wood.

"but ye I couldn't pinpoint the exact place where we saw her, no. What about ye?" He said as he turned Hermione,"

"I think it's a bit further this way," she said. "I'll remember it when I see it." Hermione stepped out in front to lead the group. The forest grew so densely here that twisted tree roots and rock jutted out from the ground. She trod carefully.

"Ow,"

Hermione turned back to see Phillipe Monsignor on his hands and knees, his foot still caught in the tree root that had tripped him.

In two strides Hagrid was beside him. He grasped the pathetic man under the shoulder and pulled him to his feet.

"Thanks," Phillipe mumbled as he brushed down his clothes.

Hermione carried on forward with her wand pointed out. The forest was eerily silent she had not seen one creature not even a bug, it was as of she had warned them all off with her light.

"Hagrid, over here," she shouted.

He bounded over to her panicked. "Wha's the matter?" he gasped.

"This is it. This is where we saw her."

Phillipe's footsteps ran up behind them as he finally caught up. "and you are sure?" Phillipe asked as he grasped her arm.

"Yes," she snapped as she freed herself.

"Where exactly?" Phillipe asked as he reached into his satchel to retrieve a very old fashioned looking monocle. He stepped very carefully where Hermione pointed her light and bent down to examine the earth through his eye glass. He was bent so low to the floor that his nose was almost touching the earth. He looked in a deep breath through his nose and slowly exhaled before shaking his head. "Hmm," he muttered.

"Wha'?" Hagrid questioned.

"Oh it's nothing." Phillipe said as he took three ancient looking test tubes out of his bag. "Well I'll need to take a few soil samples,"

"What'll tha' do?" Hagrid asked eagerly.

"Well we can run a few detection spells and what not and see of we can't find a trace of your elf," Phillipe replied as filled the test tubes with dirt before roughly stuffing handfuls of leaves in to small clear plastic bags. He placed the evidence into his satchel and took out his notebook to jot a few more notes. Hermione circled the spot where they had last seen hoping to see a trace of her, or a clue; anything. But it all looked the same, leaves, mud and hundreds of trees.

"Now, what is the quickest way out of here?" Phillipe asked as he dusted off his hands, looking around at the darkness.

"But we haven't found anything yet, " Hermione protested.

She had to find something, she just had too. She needed to know why the elf was stalking her dreams and what did those words mean? She calls on you. Who is 'she'?

She needed to find just a scrap of evidence of Blathenuedd because Hermione was beginning to feel as if she were going mad,"

"Hagrid, I thought we were coming out to look for her not samples of dirt. We saw her weeks ago any trace of her so long gone but she might still be out here somewhere." Hermione pleaded with her friend. "I say we keep searching."

"I assure you Miss Granger, I have all I need." Phillipe interjected pompously.

"Phillipe is right, times getting on and we've got to head back yet. Ye never know these tests migh' find something."

"How long these tests take?" Hermione said through gritted teeth.

"Well I'm the lab this kind of thing would usually only take a couple of days but that is with a whole team of people. One of my friends who work in the lab is doing this for me as a favour. I couldn't say exactly how long it'll take, a few weeks perhaps. Maybe a bit longer."

A few weeks? She couldn't wait that long! Please just show yourself, Blathenuedd, she thought as she closed her eyes.

The elf did not appear and Hermione begrudgingly admitted defeat. The trio silently trudged through the forest until finally the found their way through to the thinning of the trees and the open castle grounds.

"I think we'll jus' about make dinner," Hagrid looked longingly at the castle.

"You go, I just want a hot bath and my bed," she replied.

Hermione left the two men in the Foyer as she exhaustedly climbed the staircase towards the Gryffindor tower.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

 _Whilst I will admit I enjoyed the books, I have to ask do you only ever read fairy tales? From what you have sent me so far I sense that your interests are a little immature for my tastes. I read to learn, you should try it some time._

 _So what else have you got?_

* * *

Hermione was buried in her book and almost missed the commotion going on just a few seats away from. It was only because Parvati had knocked into her that Hermione even bothered to look up at the happenings at all.

Seamus was wiping milk from his reddening face as he shouted and swore at an owl which had landed in his bowl of cornflakes.

Hermione watched as Errol slowly shook himself dry and painstakingly hobbled down the table towards her.

"Thanks Hermione," Seamus spat at her as he stood up to wipe down his clothes.

"It's not my fault," she muttered back before taking the letter bearing her name from the owls leg.

 _Dearest Hermione,_

 _Arthur and I would be honoured to have you stay with us for the Christmas holidays. We have invited Harry, and Ron and Ginny will be here. The twins are even staying for a week or so._

 _If you are spending the holidays with your parents we completely understand but we would love to have you all the same._

 _Send your reply with Errol, though it may be an idea to give him a day or so to rest first._

 _Yours_

 _Molly Weasley_

Hermione sighed as she read it. She loved the burrow and all of the Weasleys as if they were her own family but she couldn't face being there, not right now.

"Did she invite you for Christmas?"

Hermione turned to see Ginny standing behind her.

"Yeah," she said as she turned to face her.

"Please come," Ginny begged as she stole the letter from Hermione's hands.

"I'm not sure," Hermione admitted glancing over to Harry.

"Oh," Ginny realised. "What exactly is going on there?" She asked.

Hermione shrugged. "I'm not sure,"

Ginny looked over at him, trying to figure him out. She shrugged. "Well, maybe you will make up at

home where he is forced to spend time with you."

Hermione breathed a sigh of sadness. "Well that's just it. I don't want to be forced to spend time with me when he won't talk to me."

"Maybe, I could talk to him,"

Hermione waves off the girls suggestion. "Please don't,"

"Okay," Ginny let it go. "But please think about coming for Christmas. It won't be the same with out you."

Hermione smiled. "Thanks and I will, think about it."

Her mind was already made up. She would not be going to the Burrow for Christmas but she just couldn't face her friends disappointment. She had already had to reject her parents invitation to spend the holidays with them.

She hated to do it, she spent so little time with her parents as it was but she had to, for their protection.

Hermione knew the risks of being so closely involved with Harry and after everything that happened at the Ministry, her face was well known in the Wizarding World. She knew that her parents were potential prime targets, a perfect way for the Death Eaters to get to her.

As much as it hurt, she had to spend as little time with them as possible.

Hermione was going to spend Christmas here at Hogwarts. Not only could she escape Harry and keep her parents that little bit safer, but with the castle so empty she could spend her time looking for answers.

She had tried to put all thoughts of Blathenuedd out of her head. Persistent dreams are common especially for someone under stress and she definitely fit that description. She had seen no further sign of her and Hermione was beginning to think what she had seen in the window was just a trick of the light.

But as much as she tried to reason with herself and push it to the back of her mind, thoughts of the strange little elf were always dominated her days.

Hermione had been to see Hagrid twice now for any news from Mr Monsignor, but there was nothing.

"Ye gotta be patient, 'ermione. 'E said it'd take a few weeks, if no' more," Hagrid had said.

But patience was something that was wearing thin.

The endless nights of the same strange dream had driven her to desperation. She felt imprisoned. As if she were in a cage and Blathenuedd stood outside prodding and poking her; taunting her. What kind of game was she playing?

Whatever it was, Hermione wanted it to stop.

She needed to find her.

Hermione had a free period first so retreated to the almost empty common room to pluck up the courage to decline Mrs Weasley's invitation. She didn't think the woman would understand her choice to stay at school but Hermione hoped she wasn't too hurt.

 _Mrs Weasley,_

 _Thank you for your kind offer and if the circumstances were any different I would love to come. I have decided to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. I have been struggling at school lately so I am going to use the time to catch up. I hope you understand._

 _Love_

 _Hermione_

With her quill in her hand she decided to write a reply to another letter. She'd had to leave it a few days before she could even read it again. How dare he? The Hobbit is not a fairy tale, it's classic literature. A tale of adventure and friendship. How dare he call her immature.

Her hand shook as she began to write.

 _I've sent you two books and you think you can judge my taste from that. Of course I read to learn- we are at school, that is the whole point._

 _The books I sent to you were my childhood favourites so yes they may seem immature but how was I to know they would not be to your taste._

 _If you don't like my selections how about you send me a book?_

Her quill scratched so hard into the parchment that several puncture holes scattered the letter.

Hermione roughly folded the parchment before tossing it into the letterbox.

A reply fluttered onto her pillow as she went to retrieve her bag and cloak to go to Herbology. She quickly tore into the envelope.

 _Send me one first._

She didn't have time to deal with it so tossed the letter onto her bed before dashing off to the greenhouses.

Hermione trod the path to greenhouse 5 very carefully as her classmates slipped about on the ice.

Hagrid hovered around the entrance to the classroom and his face lit up when he finally saw Hermione.

"'Ermione, I've bin lookin' fer ye," He beamed.

"Hello, Hagrid," she greeted him warmly.

"Phillipe's been in touch, 'e reckons 'e's found somethin', come down to mine later and I'll show ye," he said.

Hermione was suddenly focused. "I'll come now," she insisted.

"Haven' ye got class?" Hagrid gestured to the greenhouse behind him.

"It's fine," Hermione assured him. She glanced among her classmates trickling to class. "Hannah," she called over to Hannah Abbott, who she sat next to in class. "Could you tell Professor Sprout that I've got a headache and I've gone to see Madame Pomfrey?"

"Sure," Hannah smiled. "Feel better,"

"Thanks," she replied before striding after Hagrid.

"Don' mind the mess," Hagrid said as he led her into his hut. "I've 'ad a busy few days. Ain't 'ad the chance t' clean up,"

"It's fine,"

Hermione folded few of Hagrid's clothes and placed them onto the coffee table so that she could take a seat in the arm chair. Fang bounded at her legs in welcome, she stoked on his head in an attempt to calm him down but somehow translated as an invitation to jump up and sit on her. Fang was a lovely and friendly dog but he was no lap dog. His beastly frame crushed her as his muscular tail whipped at her legs.

"Down, fang," Hagrid commanded as he placed a cup of extra strong tea in front of her.

Hermione sat forward to catch her breath when the weight was lifted as fang happily went to sit at his masters feet.

"So what did he say?" Hermione asked as soon as she had caught her breath.

Hagrid stood up, causing fang to stir, and went to retrieve the letter.

"'E says they still go' tests to run but they think they something, look,"

Hermione took the letter and read it greedily.

 _Hagrid_

 _I have good news to share. Whilst the tests are in their preliminary stages we have found something already. In one of the samples of dirt was a tiny skin cell that we have determined does not belimgntom any known creature._

 _It is a good start_

 _I will keep you updated._

 _Phillipe Monsignor_

Hermione read it through several tones feeling deflated. She had hoped for so much more than this.

"Like he says 'ermione, it's a good start," said Hagrid as her gazed at her.

"It's not good enough. I need to find her," she mumbled.

"Blimey, I didn't realise you were so keen. Why do you need to find her?"

Hermione shrugged and turned to glance around Hagrid's hut. "It doesn't matter,"

"It does, 'ermione. If something's goin' on,"

Hermione met the man's gaze. "Honestly, Hagrid, there is nothing going on. It's just that if we can prove the elf's existence, it'll be a good thing for my name to be attached to the discovery, it may help for jobs in the future." She lied.

"Ah, I see. Well don't get yer hopes up too much just in case."

"Okay," she nodded.

Hermione drank down her tea trying to think of polite chit chat to lighten the mood but failed. After several minutes she stood up to take her cup to the sink and made her excuses to hagrid.

Instead of hearing back to class hermione headed straight for her dorm to wait for the end of class.

As soon as she entered the room she caught the glint of metal waiting for her on her pillow.

She marched across the room and snatched the object up from the bed. Hermione turned it in her fingers, quite unsure of what it was. A coin perhaps although it was far too large for any coin she had ever seen. A medallion perhaps? The silver was dull and blackened in parts by age. etched into it was symbols of an unknown language. There was no letter.

Why did he send this to her?

Hermione turned the thing in her fingers for a few minutes as she examined it.

 _Did you send me this? What is it and why?_

She quickly scrawled the note and darted downstate to post it before going back to sit on her bed to wait. Turning the thing in her hand the whole time.

She sat through all of lunch and Transfiguration waiting for an answer she was just about to give up, feeling extremely guilty for already missing two classes that day but finally his reply fluttered down.

 _I haven't sent you anything why would I?_

Her pulse began to race as she took in what he said. Of course he sent it! Who else could have?

 _Don't play games, it's not funny._

Hermione did not make it to class for the rest of the day. She sat on her bed playing with the medallion trying to understand what he was possibly trying to do here. Every now and then she glanced up to see if an envelope would flutter down to her.

It was long after dinner that the envelope came. Her body ached from sitting in the same position for hours. Hermione stood up to delight in stretching before changing for bed and climbing beneath the covers. The envelope fluttered down behind her as she sat up to straighten out the blankets.

 _I can promise you I have sent you nothing. Now where is my book?_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

"Merry Christmas Hermione," said Parvati as she dragged her trunk across the room.

"Merry Christmas," Hermione put down her book and smiled to her room mate who was leaving for Christmas break.

Parvati went to open the door but jumped back as Ginny sprung through it. "Are you not coming down to say goodbye?" The girl shouted to Hermione across the room.

"Yeah," Hermione nodded as she stood up from her bed and followed Parvati and Ginny out of the room.

Ginny led her through the gathering groups of students in the Gryffindor Common Room to where Ron was stood snogging the face off lavender brown whilst Harry stared at a spot across the room.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Ginny nagged Hermione.

"I'm sure,"

"I wanted to come and say bye," Dean Thomas interrupted talking only to Ginny, his girlfriend. "Just in case I didn't get to on the train,"

Ginny smiled. I'll be back in a second," she said as she led Dean over to a quieter corner.

"It's because of me you're not coming isn't it," Harry said as he turned to face her.

"Not entirely," she shrugged.

"I'm sorry Hermione," his eyes pleaded with her. "I've not been fair to you...it's just sometimes I feel like your not on my side and I've lost enough people as it is I need you to be with me." Harry looked to the floor as he finished speaking.

"I am always on your side, Harry," she assured him as she reached out to touch his shoulder. "And I am always with you. I act as I do because I care."

Harry gave her a slight nod and a weak smile but Hermione pulled him into a hug.

"I just get so frustrated that you won't listen but I shouldn't let it get to me, I'm so sorry." Harry muttered into Hermione's wild mass of hair.

Her jaw clenched as she swallowed his comment; who was he to say she didn't listen, he never heard a word she was saying. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she tried to forget her brewing anger. It felt so good to be holding Harry, to have him by her side once again, that it was worth ignoring his snide remarks.

"Are you sure you don't want to come to the Burrow, I'm sure Mrs Weasley wouldn't mind," Harry said as he broke away from their embrace.

"I'm sure," she smiled. "I really do have other reasons to stay here,"

He shot her a curious glance. "Like what?"

"Homework,"

Harry smirked. "Homework?" He scoffed. "That's a bit of a feeble excuse, isn't it,"

Hermione could feel the heat growing in her cheeks, she hoped her blushing would not give her away. "Well it's true," she shrugged. "I've been struggling with my workload for quite some time, it'll be nice to get ahead of myself,"

She had thought briefly about telling both Ron and Harry about Blathenuedd and the strange coin but she couldn't bring herself to do it. If she was honest, she wasn't sure they'd believe her.

No. For now whatever was going on was going to stay between her and the elf.

"Come on, we'd better get going," Ginny said as she rushed back to them. "Ron," she shouted sounding scarily like her mother. "Come on were going to be late for the train.

"Are you sure?" Ginny pleaded with her.

"I'm sure. Now go and have a lovely Christmas."

"And you. Bye Hermione," the girl replied.

"Bye," she waved her friends out of the dorm before closing the door firmly behind them.

Hermione sighed with relief.

She had been planning this for days. didn't know how many students remained behind if any, Professor 'cGinaga,l had told her that most of the teaching staff were leaving for the holidays, the castle was almost entirely empty. If she was going to sneak out at night she'd never again have better opportunity.

She had barely concentrated through the last few days of term, her thoughts consumed by the medallion. Her pen pal had sworn he didn't send it and none of her suitemates confessed to leaving it there when she had asked. Only one other thought had occurred to her, Blathenuedd.

Enough was enough. She had to take action. How much longer could she stand to have the elf stalk her? Hermione would stop at nothing to find her. They had failed last time because Blathenuedd didn't want to be found by anyone. It was Hermione she wanted so that it what Hermione would give her. Perhaps if she went out alone to meet her, Blathenuedd would come.

She waited until long after the lamps had gone out for the night to quickly get out of bed still fully clothed. Hermione grabbed her cloak and wrapped it around before tiptoeing across the empty dorm room through the common room and out of the portrait hole exit.

"And where are you going?" The Fat Lady said from behind her.

Hermione turned to the woman in the painting and pressed her finger to her lips, pleading with her.

"Well alright, don't tell me." The painting replied.

Glancing all around Hermione made her way down the stairs and as she approached the main doors reached into her pocket to retrieve her wand.

"Alohamora," she whispered at the antique brass handle. She pulled on it as she heard the click of the lock.

The icy wind hit her like a crashing wave as soon as she stepped fro, the welcoming castle walls. She pulled her cloak tightly around her as she walked on into the black night that engulfed the grounds. Already shivering, Hermione hoped that the blanket our trees would offer some refuge from the winter air.

Hermione stopped as she noticed the lights on Hagrids hit were still on. She crouched down low to avoid being seen and stayed for a moment listening out for any noise from the house.

A loud grunting snore caused her to flinch as a panic rose from her stomach, until it registered that Hagrid was asleep and her path was clear. Hermione continued on into the dense thicket of trees.

In the shadows of the trees the night was blacker than she had ever experienced before. She could barely see in front of her but she did not dare to cast a light until she was sure she had gone deep enough for absolute cover by the trees.

The path was almost familiar now but this late at night the forest was eerie. The forest seemed even more exposed to the elements than the open ground. the strong winds battered against the trees around her and the temperature felt as if it were falling by the second. The ice cold air felt like a vice constricting her lungs; preventing her from catching her breath. Yet she still paced on thoughts of finding the elf carrying her.

Hermione's feet thundered across the forest floor as she got deeper and deeper into the heart of it. There was an eerie silence that permeated throughout the trees, only her heavy panting and the frost crunching underfoot, broke through.

Her teeth chattered, she tried to control, not wanting to make a sound but she shouldn't the cold had penetrated her bones.

Hermione pulled her cloak tightly around her and pulled her hands up into her sleeves. "Blathenuedd," she croaked between chattering of her teeth. "Blathenuedd."

The trees grew so close together that she climbed and tiptoed her way through.

Her legs were becoming heavy and her pace was slowing; Hermione came to a stop, bent over and held onto her knees as she tried to catch her breath and regain composure. When her heartbeat had slowed to a semi-normal rate, Hermione slumped against a tree. The muscles in her legs began to shake beneath her before giving way completely, causing her to slide down against the rough tree bark and fall with a thump to the mossy ground. She neither thought about nor cared that the ground was cold and muddy.

Hermione waited for over an hour but Blathenuedd did not show. She did not quite have the energy to move yet.

A rustling noise startled her from the heavy fog bowing in her head. Hermione arm ached as she thrust out her wand and felt.

She lowered it as a a glowing white leg stepped out from the foliage. Hermione gazed in awe as the unicorn and her foal crossed her path.

The cold had penetrated right to her bones and her head was beginning to feel a little fuzzy. She clasped her hands together to breath into to generate a bit of warmth but not matter how much she fought she could not fight it.

Hermione staggered up and clumsily headed off through the forest tripping over tree roots and bumping into trees. She had walked for a while but as she looked around she could not recognise where she was. She headed back to retrace her step but couldn't remember which way to turn. She would have cred if she could but she was scared that her tears would freeze to her face. Hermione decided on a path, determined to find her way out.

Hermione stumbled over low branches tripping but regaining balance and tiredly dragging herself one.

One such branch caught Hermione's leg, she crashed to the floor. With no energy to get up, to cold to fight the pain in her leg, she lay there, her face pressed against the ground, succumbing to the sleep that chased her.

Why was her body jerking? No it wasn't jerking really, more like soft rocking like that of a baby's cradle. Why was she rocking?

Hermione tried to open her eyes but they remained firmly closed, too sore and encrusted with sleep to embrace consciousness.

The biting wind licked at her cheeks and hands but it felt as of she were leaning against something warm?

Was that galloping? Hermione fought against the fog that threatened to reclaim her to listen. Twigs breaking underfoot and a soft thumping. Yes that was definitely galloping. Was she on a horse?

No. Someone was carrying her. She could feel the heat for their arms under her arms and on the back of her knees.

Thoughts of where she was flooded her mind? Was she still in the forest? What this a creature who was about to make her their next meal?

Hermione peeled open one eye and gasped as she looked up at a face she had seen before. "Don't kill me," she croaked only then realising how dry her mouth and lips felt.

"Do not panic, you are safe," The centaur replied.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean too," she sobbed.

She felt helpless, this creature, who had threatened her life before had effortlessly carried her off through the woods. Where was he taking her?

"You will be fine," the voice was kind but mildly impatient.

Hermione couldn't resist the lure of the fog any longer and passed out leaving her at the mercy of the Centaur.

A crushing pain in her head as she was thrown roughly to the floor, jolted Hermione from unconsciousness. She groaned as her every muscle felt as if they had been replaced by lead. She tried to reach out to the source of the pain but she couldn't move.

Her heavy eyes protested as she opened them. There was a clearing in the trees ahead. Had he bought her to the edge of the forest? Her neck creaked as her head slowly rolled sideways. She stared at the hooves standing beside her. Bane held out a small horn before placing it to his lips to play the same four notes over and over again. The sound felt like an assault on her eyes are she tried to open her mouth to beg him to stop but the words would not come. Through the blaring horn Hermione heard a dog barking in the distance followed by the slamming of a door.

Finally the alarm stopped as a shadow bounded towards the trees shouting. "Alrigh', alrigh', I'm 'ere what do ye want!" Hagrid stopped as he neared. "Hello Bane,"

"Hagrid," the centaur gave a stiff bow. "I believe this belongs to you,"

"'Ermione," Hagrid gasped when he finally saw her.

"I found her passed out deep within the forest. I would say that the cold is killing her and quickly,"

"Oh my,"

Hermione croaked as he bent down to scoop her into his arms. "I had to find her," she said as her eyes rolled back and she faded away.

"Oh Hermione," Hagrid groaned.

And once again she was bouncing through the air, held by strong arms.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

"Please can I go today?" Hermione pleaded with Madame Pompfrey.

"You almost died, Miss Granger. You must rest. I'm sorry but that is out of the question," The strict but kind nurse replied firmly.

Tears welled up in Hermione's eyes. It had been three days since Hagrid had found her in the forest and bought her to the hospital wing. Already the sight of the depressingly clinical room was beginning to drive her crazy.

It was Christmas Eve; she wanted to be eating mince pies and sitting beside the crackling fireplace, not staring at the same four off-white walls and several cast iron beds. Madame Pompfrey had tried to add a little festive cheer to the room but her meager bit of tinsel and ancient looking, miniscule Christmas tree actually made it feel even worse.

With most of the students home for Christmas, the hospital was a ghost town, Hagrid had visited everyday but as much as she loved him, his indiscreet questioning was beginning to wear her patience.

Hermione had no desire to talk about what happened in the forest with anyone, She'd already had Madame Pompfrey and Professor McGonagall on her back. Her Head of House had visited her her the morning after she'd been admitted, she had not seen her since.

Hermione was glad to avoid her disappointment. The woman's words still rang in her ears.

"I cannot believe the level of stupidity with which you acted, Miss Granger. The Forbidden Forest is named so for a reason, there are numerous untold dangers in there. You could have died."

Hermione had never seen Professor McGonagall so angry, especially not at her. Her eyes were alight with fury as she spat the words which forced the guilty bile to rise in her throat. "You have cost Gryffindor fifty points and you will begin the new term in detention with me."

Trying to take her mind off of that conversation, Hermione sat up in the bed and sought out the entertainment that Madame Pompfrey managed to prove her; an ancient crossword book, a few her old copies of Witch Weekly and some parchment, a quill and a well of ink. However most of the crosswords had been completed and the ones which weren't contained obscure clues which she didn't understand, Witch Weekly was a magazine designed for the older lady, filled with recipes and housekeeping tips and there was only so many people she could write too.

She had already wrote to each one of her friends and her parents and she'd yet to receive one reply so she could hardly write to them again. Reaching for the parchment and quill she decided to catch up with her pen pal.

 _Merry Christmas_

 _I hope you are enjoying the holidays wherever you are. I assume you will be at home so you probably won't get this until you are back but I am bored._

 _I am spending my holidays in the Infirmary at Hogwarts. I decided to stay here for the holidays thinking it would be the better choice, but obviously not. There is nothing to do here but stare at the walls and sleep, there isn't even anyone who could bring me my books._

 _As it is, I obviously cannot send you anymore books at the moment but if you are at home with your family it probably won't matter because I should be free by the time you return to the castle._

 _Whilst I am on the subject of books, I want to clarify something that has been bothering me. This arrangement seems to have become a kind of mail service library for you but this was not my intention. I have sent you my books so that we may have something to talk about; what did you like about the story, who was your favourite character- that sort of thing. I thought you could actually have some input in this._

 _Ignore what I wrote before, I am not sending anymore books until you answer the following questions._

 _You said you liked the Chronicles of Narnia series, what particularly did you enjoy?_

 _Do you have a favourite book of the series? I don't really as I believe each book is only a segment of the story. My father used to read them to me as a child, I'm sure he loved the as much as m and now every time I open on I'm sucked back in, immersed in my second world. Narnia really is my favourite place to visit. Before you give me any of your snide remarks, I know it's not a real place but I feel like I'm there. Do you ever feel like that? What was your favourite childhood book? Have you got a favourite book now? I have far too many to list. As you can probably tell, I am a bit of a bookworm._

 _Well enjoy your holidays and I hope to hear from you in the new year._

Hermione folded up her letter and placed it with her very few things on the bedside table before rolling over and doing the only other thing to effectively pass time. She had never been a big sleeper but here in this stiff hospital bed she was averaging fifteen hours a day.

The lights in the infirmary had been dimmed to almost a faint orange hum and the curtains drawn across the windows when Hermione woke up. Madame Pompfrey's door was locked and Hermione was alone. It was late.

She sat up to stretch out as she yawned but a glimpse of something caught her eye and she swallowed mid yawn and stared at her awake and alert.

"Blathenuedd," Hermione gasped.

The elf stood no taller than the tip of the wheel on her bed, her hat and dress fashioned from leaves. She stared wide eyed at Hermione.

Blathenuedd began to climb up the metal railings on the bed until she was stood on Hermione's blanket, theirs legs just touching.

"You came you find me miss," the elf smiled weakly.

Hermione stuttered unable to find the words of frustration anger and relief at finally seeing her her.

"Why?" She spat finally.

"Why, miss?" Blathenuedd questioned innocently.

"Why? Why everything?" Hermione spluttered with disbelief. "Why are you stalking me? Why are you haunting my dreams? And why did you leave that damn medallion on my pillow?"

"I is not doing any of those things," Blathenuedd stood up straighter with the indignation.

"Yes you are! From the first time I saw you, you have haunted my dreams night after night repeating the same words. I saw you staring at me through my window and then last week…" Hermione rolled on to her side to reach into the cupboard of the bedside table to retrieve her cloak. Staring back at Blathenuedd she pulled the medallion out of her inside pocket. "Last week you sent me this... Why?"

"It is not me, miss I promise."

"I know what I've seen, now please just tell me what you want," Hermione spat.

"I is just a messenger. I didn't send you nothing. I is just a messenger."

Hermione went to argue again but bit her tongue as she took in the elfs words. "Messenger? A messenger for who?"

Blathenuedd shifted nervously as she looked down at her feet before looking back up at Hermione with resolve. "I is only supposed to tell you that she calls you,"

Hermione leant over threateningly. "Blathenuedd, tell me," she said through gorgtem teeth.

The elf flinched back and squealed at Hermione's threat. "The great goddess," she replied.

"What?" Hermione spluttered. "The great goddess? What does that mean? It doesn't make any sense."

"The great goddess," Blathenuedd repeated with more confidence. "The great mother, the goddess of the moon and magic. Protector of women and all creatures. Knower of all."

"Who?" Hermione questioned.

"Go to her,"

"Go to who? Go where?"

"Miss I just just the messenger. I must go." Blathenuedd shrugged before turning away from her.

"Blathenuedd, no," Hermione reached out in an attempt to stop her but before the words we fully sounded the elf had disappeared.

Seconds later, Hermione heard footsteps running down the corridor towards her.

Madame Pompfrey burst through the doors with her dressing gown wrapped around her waist and her hair in rollers.

"Miss Granger is everything alright? I heard shouting," she gasped.

"Everything's fine. I think I was having a nightmare." She assured the nurse.

"Oh well...would you like me to get you a sleeping draught?"

Hermione shook her head. "No thank you, I'll be okay,"

"Right well then, back to bed."

Hermione nodded before turning over onto her side and pulling the blankets up over her.

When she was satisfied, Madame Pompfrey left the infirmary and Hermione.

Hermione stared across the the large window which had been covered by a thick grey curtain. An envelope fluttered down in front of her eyes. Hermione sat up to look on top of the bedside table to see that her envelope was missing. Where had that gone? Surely it hadn't been delivered. How could it have? It was there when she went to sleep.

Hermione tore open the seal and slipped the folded parchment out.

 _Haha!! How in the hell have you landed yourself in the infirmary for Christmas? What a stupid thing to do. Idiot!!_

Hermione screwed up the reply and tossed it across the room before turning over to go back to sleep.

For the first time in weeks it was not Blathenuedd's face that haunted her dreams, she wished it was.

The ground beneath her was muddy but the sky was growing dark and her vision was obscured by the fog. She took a step forward and as her boot squelched in the mud she heart raced in her chest because of another sound. A man. She tiptoed on through the thick mud before reaching a clearing in the trees she went to walk out but her legs would not move. Harry walked out from the trees opposite her, she tried to call out to his name but her voice never came.

"Harry Potter, how easily you walk to your death,"

Hermione span around to see a man facing Harry. A tall and skeletal man with a face whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostril.

Terror crashed through her like waves.

"It is not my death I have come for." Harry spat as he extended his wand arm.

The petrifying man began to cackle. "You think you can defeat me? You, a boy defeat the greatest wizard that had ever lived?"

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest wizard who ever lived."

The maniacal mans face contorted with rage as his arm flew back. "Avada Kedavra," he shouted.

Hermione jolted awake the flash of green light still blinding her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi there, Im so sorry its taken so long to updated this story. I started university and got a part time job so its been hard to find the time. I do want to get this finished though so I am aiming for about a chapter a month and theres about 40 chapters planned.**

 **thanks for your support**

 **x**

 **Chapter 16**

 _Christmas_

Feeling something touch her toes, Hermione shot up in her bed and eyed every inch of the still dark hospital room before taking a few deep breaths to calm herself. She glanced down at her feet to see that it was a pile of presents that had been laid out at the bottom of her bed.

She could not shake the image of Voldemort and that jet of green light and reached out for her wand to focus her attentions elsewhere. "Lumos," she whispered pointing the light her pile of Christmas presents. She had quite a few. It took until after the sun had risen to unwrap them all. Despite still being in the infirmary on Christmas morning, Hermione couldn't help but smile as she gazed at the thoughtful gifts. Harry had bought her a beautiful leather bound diary/ notebook that closed with an ornate metal clasp, Ginny had given her a De-Frizz hairbrush-one of many new products by Fred and George as part of their new beauty range, From Ron she had a stunning russet coloured Hawk feather quill with bold black stripes. Ron had had her name engraved on the spine. Mrs Weasley had sent her usual Christmas parcel which included a large box of fudge, a huge basket of mince pies and Hermiones very own Weasley Christmas jumper. Hermione hugged the jumper and took in a deep breath with her nose nuzzled in the wool. It smelt like Mrs Weasley, the burrow and warmth. Her parents had sent two separate presents this year, something they had never done before. Her mother's parcel had contained a rather small but very pretty silver locket. The gift from her father had come with a note attached.

 _My dear Hermione,_

 _Merry Christmas! I came across this a couple of weeks ago and couldn't resist buying it for you._

 _With lots of love,_

 _Dad_

 _X_

Hermione carefully untied the string of the simply wrapped brown paper parcel. Inside was a very old and slightly tattered book, she squinted to read the faded title but her jaw dropped when she did. He had got her a first edition copy of The Hobbit. Confusion, amazement and wonder clouded her train of thoughts. He had gotten her a first edition of the hobbit- wow! She thought of their time together all of those years ago reading this book and felt a rush of affection for her father.

"Good morning, Miss Granger. Merry Christmas," Madame Pompfrey waved as she burst through the infirmary doors and bustled off straight towards her office.

"Merry Christmas, Madame Pompfrey," Hermione called to the Matrons disappearing back.

Hermione went back to delicately thumbing the pages of The Hobbit as she waited for the nurse to come out for Hermione's morning check up. She was sure today was the day that Madame Pompfrey finally discharged her. It was Christmas after all they couldn't expect her to spend Christmas in her hospital bed.

Her hopes were dashed when the nurse finally appeared and groaned as she took Hermione's temperature.

Madame Pompfrey wrote a few notes on Hermione's chart and turned to walk away.

"Are you not letting me out?" Hermione blurted.

"Letting you out, whatever gave you that idea?"

"It's Christmas," Hermione muttered hanging her head.

"I'm sorry, dear but you are not well," Madame Pompfrey explained slowly with her eyes full of kindness.

Hermione glanced up as she sat up straight. "But I feel fine,"

"Miss Granger, you very nearly froze to death only a few days ago. You are getting better, slowly but your body is not fighting as it should because you are suffering from exhaustion. My tonics and potions can only do so much. You need rest and relaxation and the infirmary is the best place for that. I'm sorry,"

Hermione opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a loud booming voice from across the room.

"Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas," Hagrid roared with glee as he strode over to Hermione's bed in three steps.

"Hi, Hagrid," Hermione smiled.

As Hagrid loaded the table beside Hermione's bed with his homemade rock cakes, scones and cookies. Hermione called to the Matron before she could walk away.

"Can I at least go to the Christmas feast in the Great Hall? Please," she pleaded.

Madame Pompfrey gazed at Hermione with pity. "I'm sorry, Miss Granger but feast and party is hardly rest and relaxation does it?" She said before walking away.

"'Ow ye feelin'?" Hagrid asked as he settled into the chair beside her bed.

"Fine," she assured him.

He looked at her kindly but almost with a look like he didn't believe her.

"Honestly, Hagrid, I'm fine," she smiled.

"Hmpf," he grunted as he shifted in his chair. "Ye should've come to me. You 'ad no business being in the forest alone at night. I would've taken ye in, ye know tha'. I just can' understand wha' ye were thinkin'."

Hermione looked away as her cheeks flushed from the shame. "I wasn't thinking really," she muttered.

"But why?"

"Because I wanted to find her," she mumbled.

Hermione met Hagrid's worried gaze.

"Who? The elf?" He questioned.

Hermione nodded.

"Oh 'ermione, when I think wha' migh' 'ave happened. He could be dead and we migh' not have found yer fer days,"

Hermione already felt foolish. It was the middle of December and the temperature in Scotland had dropped well below freezing yet she went out without adequate protection, she didn't even have a hat or gloves. She knew just how stupid she had been. The fleeting look of terror that was on Hagrid's face as he spoke of her dying made her feel weighed down with such guilt.

"I'm so sorry, Hagrid. I'll never be that stupid again,"

Hagrid nodded as a lone tear rolled down his cheek before glistening in his wild beard.

"Jus' know 'ermione he can come to me if anything going on,"

"Thanks Hagrid, but I promise there is nothing,"

Lying to Hagrid didn't exactly help with the feeling of guilt but she couldn't bring herself to tell Hagrid about Blathenuedd, she didn't really think she could tell anyone.

Hagrid cheered up as they talked about Christmas and Hagrids latest news, buckbeak had found a lady friend. Hagrid chatted idly about the female hippogriff who he had christened, Arwen.

Soon the familiar fog of tiredness crept up on her and yawns succumbed her.

Hagrid excused himself just as Hermione drifted off to sleep.

The feast was already in full swing when Hermione woke up. She opened her eyes to find a huge plate of food in front of her all coated in congealed gravy. She shifted up with bed unti she was sitting up. The hum of cheery voices carried through the corridors leaving Hermione with a sense of longing.

"Are you sure I can't go?" She pleaded with Madame Pompfrey who sat at the desk outside her office.

"With your immune system so low, I cannot risk you catching something. I'm sorry, Miss Granger,"

She'd already resigned herself to it. She looked down at her lacklustre dinner with a sad looking cracker sat beside it. Who was she supposed to pull that with? She sighed before tucking in. It was all a little cold but okay, she ate half of it before pushing it away.

Hagrid's voice was growing louder and louder as it echoed throughout the castle. This had to be her worst Christmas.

Guilt flared up again as she thought this. Everyone had given her such thoughtful gifts and it was only through her own fault that she was sat in this bed. But she couldn't help feeling a little depressed.

Her half empty plates was cleared away to be replaced with a steaming bowl of Christmas pudding served with a vivid yellow custard. Hermione couldn't face it and pushed it away before turning on to her side lost in a wave of self pity.

The party in the Great Hall carried on for what seemed like hours. Hermione drifted in and out of sleep trying to ignore Hagrids singing and cheerful hum that rang through the castle.

After a few hours of listening to the same voices and same songs, Hermione heard something new, footsteps coming towards the infirmary. In the four days that she had been here Hermione had only seen two people other than Madame Pompfrey- Hagrid and Professor McGonagall. She shuffled over to face the door as she saw Draco Malfoy burst through them, his arms laden with books.

Hermione rolled her eyes, of all of the people to come through that door it had to be him.

He glanced around the infirmary until his eyes fell on Hermione's bed. He stared at her open mouthed momentarily before grunting in disgust. He turned around sharply and stormed back through the doors, his cloak billowing behind him.

It took a few moments before it finally sank in and when it did Hermione tried to ignore it. Draco couldn't be the one she had been writing to could he?

Within twenty minutes an enveloped fluttered down from above her bed.

 _Don't ever write to me again._


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

A Grudge Match

After over a week of being stuck in the hospital wing, Madame Pompfrey had finally discharged her on the last day of the holidays- meaning she'd had very little time to search the library before students started spilling out of the corridors the next day. Not that it mattered, to her surprise Hogwarts Library sadly lacked in books on religion. Today she had begged Madam Prince for a pass to the Restricted Section but the librarian had refused when Hermione failed to come up with an acceptable excuse.

Now that the students has returned from their holidays, the school was buzzing in anticipation for the start of term Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Hermione had barely had time to catch up with her friends since they'd arrived what with most of their housemates coming up and encouraging Harry and the rest of the team with words of false wisdom and random slaps on shoulders, even Professor McGonagall had taken to give the team tips in class or when they passed her in the hall.

Ron had looked positively sick since he'd been back and Harry was lost in his own panic, she kept hearing him mutter, "We haven't practiced for weeks," to himself.

Even though it was the first day of term, classes had been cancelled for the afternoon for the whole school to descend on the quidditch pitch and support the two teams. Hermione would have preferred to spend this free time searching for 'The Great Goddess' but she couldn't let her friends down could she?

"Fly with the wind," Seamus advised the team as Hermione pushed through the crowd that had grown around the team, to greet her friends.

"Flying against the wind will slow you down," Seamus nodded knowingly.

Harry shook his head when Seamus had turned his back, informing his team not to follow Seamus's instructions.

Ron grinned widely at her as he bounced around excitedly basking in the attention from their fellow Gryffindor's.

"Slytherin is an easy win," Harry assured them looking around each of his teammates."They might play dirty, but they don't play well. All you need to do is to keep your wits about you... because they will resort to physical violence to get their own way. So move fast, play the tactics and keep your eyes on the game as well as the balls."

Hermione failed to suppress a succession of yawns as Harry gave his pep-talk.

"Tired?" Ginny grinned

"A bit yeah, I was up late catching up on homework last night," Hermione replied, biting her lip.

"School only started today! You can't have homework already," Ginny joked.

"Well I've still got some stuff to catch up on," Hermione spat a little sharply but instantly regretted it. Her friends did not know she had spent much of her Christmas break in the infirmary and not catching up on her wo"Sorry," she apologised. "I don't function well without sleep."

"You are still coming to the game, aren't you?" Ron interrupted.

This could have been the perfect chance to get out of it- she was dying to get back to the library- but she could not bring herself to disappoint her friends' grinning faces.

"Of course," she replied with a false cheeriness.

It was always a grudge match whenever Slytherin and Gryffindor played each other and today was no exception.

Hermione left her friends at the changing room entrance and elbowed her way through the crowd to get up the stairs to take a seat.

"Good Luck," she called back to Harry, Ginny and Ron before getting lost in amongst the sea of charging children.

The stadium was full of a mass of Red's and Green's, who taunted each other across the arena. Students from other houses showed their solidarity by wearing Gryffindor or Slytherin colours, though predominately Gryffindor. The sea of scarlet accounted for almost three-quarters of the stands. Some students had even made huge banners professing their house pride.

Hermione sat in the stands ignoring the traditional Quidditch songs being sung, with a few added lyrics by some students and insults were traded throughout the crowds. She clutched onto Blathenuedd's medallion, rubbing on the metal hoping it would reveal something...anything.

Hermione turned around as she felt someone behind her. As she looked up she was greeted with a sight, Luna Lovegood stood towering over Hermione dressed from head to toe in scarlet and gold apart from the large, realistic roaring lion hat that hid most of her face.

"Hi Luna," Hermione smiled as she stashed the medallion away in her cloak.

"Hi Hermione, what's that?" Luna had noticed Hermione's attempts at hiding her secret.

"I'm not actually sure," Hermione admitted.

""Oh," Luna murmured, uninterested. "It's going to be a good game isn't it. Well I am going to sit over there. Bye Hermione."

Hermione waved as Luna pushed through the other students piling in to the stands.

As she glanced around the crowds, Hermione noticed Hagrid-who sat several benches along- waving enthusiastically.

"'Ello 'ermione," he shouted across the noisy crowd, even with his big, booming voice, Hermione struggled to hear him.

"Ye alrigh', feelin' better?" he beamed.

Hermione grinned and nodded to him before focusing her attention on the pitch where Madame Hooch made her way from the entrance at the bottom of the stands and mounted her broom.

"Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen," Michael Chance, a fourth year Hufflepuff stood up from his seat next to Professor McGonagall and opened the commentary.

The Gryffindor Team and The Slytherin team strolled out from opposite sides of the stadium and mounted their broom at Madame Hooch's whistle.

"And they're off…" Michael announced. "Nice catch there by Ginny Weasley, one of the Gryffindor teams new chasers."

Hermione watched her friends fly around in a blur above her, well Ginny and Harry anyway, Ron hovered on his broom in front of the goals with a look of sheer terror plastered on his face. She had never really been able to follow Quidditch; it was a lot easier when Ron or Ginny was sat in the crowd with you, telling you what was going on.

The crowd roared as the commentator shouted over them, "Nice goal, Demelza. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Despite the masses of students crammed into it, the stadium was icy cold. Hermione pulled her scarf around her face to trap her breath, warming her up for a few seconds at least.

She tried to forget about the cold burning in her fingers and concentrated on Harry as he zipped and zoomed around the stadium with a sullen looking Malfoy trailing behind after him. She watched with an intense curiosity as Crabbe, the new Slytherin beater, flew directly at Draco, almost as if he were intentionally trying to knock Draco from his broom.

"Oooh," shouted both Michael Chance and the crowd causing Hermione to look down a little just in time to see Demelza Robins spiralling out of control as a well-aimed bludger had knocked the wind right out of her. She managed to regain control over her broom just in time before hurtling into the stands.

"Booo..." the crowds shouted.

Professor McGonagall shouted furiously to Madame Hooch who seemed to be staring off over the stadium.

Madame Hooch blew her whistle twice as her attention returned to the game. "Penalty to Gryffindor,"

The crowds reacted with glee which exploded into a round of cheers, as Demelza Robins scored Gryffindors second goal. Hermione joined in jumping up and down in celebration.

No one cheered louder than their Head of House, Professor McGonagall, who Hermione saw shooting a very smug look at Head of Slytherin House, Professor Snape. He snarled in return before turning back to the game with fierce concentration.

Crabbe and Goyle were particularly brutal as the new Slytherin beaters, they seemed to have taken it as their sole mission to knock every Gryffindor player off their brooms, but the Lions were just a little too fast for the slovenly pair.

Cries of "Ooh's" and cheers rang through the stadium as Urquhart; the Slytherin chaser flew straight at Ginny, who flew out of his path at the very last minute leaving him to collide with the stands.

When he returned to the game he seemed very unfocused and kept drifting off in the opposite direction to the game.

"Yes," the commentator cheered along with the crowds as Gryffindor scored again. "That makes it Gryffindor, eighty; Slytherin, twenty… What's this? Has Harry Potter found the snitch?...Yes, Draco Malfoy is diving down after him…"

Harry was diving as fast as he could, his nose almost touching the handle of his broomstick as he urged it forward but Draco was only inches behind him. Both seekers flew down with their arm outstretched.

The crowd was silent waiting with baited breath to see which seeker could reach out and grasp the tiny ball first.

There was a sickening crunch of wood and bone as Crabbe directed a bludger at Malfoy followed by another, louder crunch as Harry was hit by a bludger from Goyle.

Both seekers were knocked from the brooms and hurtled down towards the ground at a great speed. Between the shock and shouts, Hermione rushed up from her seat to see Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape run out through the crowds to the rapidly falling boys.

"Arresto momentum,"

Hermione did not know who shouted the spell. She could not take her eyes off Harry; she could not move. Every second that Harry fell felt like hours her breath was caught in her throat, and her chest would not work. Harry hit the floor but at a much slower pace than he fell.

Scores of students flooded from the stands trying to get closer to the unfolding drama, Hermione fought her way through them desperate to get to her friend.

"Get out of the way," she screamed. "Move before I take away fifty house points for obstructing a prefects' duty."

The entire Gryffindor team swooped down to be with Harry, who lay on the grass, appearing to be unconscious. Madame Hooch held the team back as Dumbledore examined him.

Curiously, Hermione noticed, not one of the Slytherin team had bothered to fight to check on Draco.

Harry was already being led away on a stretcher by Professor Dumbledore before Hermione reached the front of the crowd.

"Please, can we go with him?" Hermione begged her Head of House.

The stern professor agreed. "You are to wait outside, mind until Madame Pompfrey is finished examining him," she added.

"We will," Hermione promised.

Hermione and the six other members of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team paced across the field and out into the grounds. Ron looked as if he were going to be sick as he followed the group silently back to the castle.

"Did anyone see what actually happened?" Ginny questioned, furiously.

The rest of the team murmured, but none of them had seen what had been going on, as they had been so focused on the game at hand.

Hermione had seen it, but she was unable to speak the words as all of her thoughts was consumed by Harry and the vision of his unconscious form.

"I'm just going to go and get something, I'll be you at the infirmary in a minute," Hermione announced as they came to the great staircase. She ran off to her dormitory and threw a few things into her bag.

Within minutes Hermione met the Gryffindor team at the doors to the infirmary,

and they were met by Professor Dumbledore and Professor Snape who were stood waiting outside of the closed hospital doors, talking in intense whispers. Snape ignored the team's presence but immediately stopped his furious whispering as they came hurtling down the corridor.

"Good evening," Professor Dumbledore greeted the Gryffindors, and with a glint in his eye, he added, "We are not allowed in just yet either."

Despite her all of her worries, Hermione couldn't help but giggle inwardly as she thought of Madame Pompfrey being so all-commanding that she could forbid even the Headmaster from entering her domain.

Harry was still unconscious when Hermione and the team were finally allowed to visit, long after Professor Dumbledore and Snape had been ushered in and subsequently left.

"He has broken a few bones, but nothing major. His injuries do seem to be healing at quite a slow rate, but that is nothing to worry about now. What Mr Potter needs is rest." She said sternly, eyeing the group before shuffling off back to her office.

Hermione and Ron took the only chairs by Harry's bed, and both stared at their friend wordlessly, willing him just to wake up.

Madame Pomfrey only allowed the team to visit with Harry for twenty minutes before the smell of sweat and mud proved too much and she ushered them out.

"Unclean is unhygienic," she squawked. "Go and get washed and then you may come back. Though no more than five visitors at a time."

"I'll be back in a bit," Ron assured Hermione.

Hermione relaxed in the chair, still unable to take her eyes off Harry. He looked very peaceful as he slept. His chest rose and fell rhythmically, and the tense facial expression that he wore so often lately was now relaxed; he looked just like the boy she had first made friends with.

Hermione did wonder if Madame Pompfrey had slipped Harry with a Sleeping Draught. Harry could be notoriously difficult when it came to receiving treatment.

Hermione glanced over at the bed opposite, Draco Malfoy was awake; his head wrapped in bandages. He stared at her. Hermione quickly looked down to the floor and reached for her rucksack. She reached into her bag and pulled out a neat stack of books as then stood up and walked over to Draco's bed.

"You were bringing me books the other day, wasn't you? Because I was so bored," she said.

Draco did not reply, he wouldn't even meet her gaze. He stared a the same spot on his blanket, ignoring Hermione as she placed the books on his table before turning to go back to Harry's bedside.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

 _There was nothing around her, just a black void illuminated by the light that seemed to emanate from the beautiful young woman. Her enchanting blue eyes stared into the depths of Hermione's soul and Hermione count not help but feel entranced._

 _"Hermione, you must come to me," she said her voice echoing through the nothingness. "You must come to me. There are things you need to see."_

 _Hermione tried to reply, to ask her how but she could not find her voice._

 _The woman and her words faded away._

 _"You must come to me,"_

 _Hermione heard the whisper through the trees that emerged from the dark. Hermione found herself in an unfamiliar forest. Dozens of cloaked figures stood around staring into the heart of the circle, at the crackling fire. A terrible figure was illuminated by the fires light, the licking flames making his awful red eyes look even more terrifying._

 _"My friends, today is the day." He started as he looked around his followers. "The day that we take the next step on our ultimate journey, soon we shall succeed. Soon we shall rule the wizarding world," he cackled._

 _As death eaters cheered and whooped Hermione stirred and the dream was lost._

* * *

"Hello, Madame Pince," Hermione smiled as she approached the librarians grand desk. "Could you take me to the restricted section, please," she asked as she rummaged in her rucksack.

"You have a pass?" Madame Pince questioned with suspicion.

Hermione held out a crinkled pass and the librarian eyed it, checking for authenticity. It had been signed by Professor Vector and she could find no fault so stepped out from behind her desk and led Hermione to the locked area of the library.

"Lumos," Hermione whispered once she had retrieved her wand from her pocket. This part of the library always seemed darker than the rest. Hermione scanned the shelves looking for books on magical artefacts, taking her time as the librarian hovered by the door as she always did when someone gained access to the restricted section.

Once she had gathered a pile of books Hermione allowed Madame Pince to lock door and went to take a seat on her favourite beanbag.

She spent at least a couple of hours flicking through pages comparing pictures to the medallion that sat beside her.

She was reading an article on Marie Anntoinette's healing necklace, when a shadow crept over her page. Hermione looked up to see Luna Lovegood looking down at the medallion.

"I've seen that before," Luna said pointing at it.

"Hi, Luna. Yeah, you saw it yesterday- at the quidditch match," Hermione replied a little impatiently.

"No that is not it, I've seen it somewhere else. How is Harry?"

"Where have you seen it?" Hermione asked as excitement built in her chest.

"I'm not sure. So Harry, is he okay after yesterday?"

Hermione sighed. "Harry is fine, he's still in the hospital wing but he'll be fine. Luna this is really important. I need to find out what this is, please can you think of where you have seen it before,"

"Okay," Luna replied mystically as her gaze drifted over to the window.

"Luna," Hermione begged.

"I think I may have seen it in one of my mother's books; she was very into Earth magic, you know."

"Earth magic, what is earth...ugh.. never mind. Do you have this book?"

Luna shook her head. "Oh no, it's probably at home."

"Do you think you could get it for me?" Hermione asked.

"Oh well, I don't know which one it will be and daddy is really very busy, the Quibbler's circulation has almost quadrupled. He is working very hard."

Hermione got to her feet so that she was eye to eye with the wacky Ravenclaw. She grasped Lunas arms and stared into her vacant blue eyes. "Luna please, this is important. Could you please try and get it for me?"

Luna smiled unconcerned by Hermiones rising panic. "Okay, I will try. I'll write to Daddy today. Well I must go."

Hermione felt so uplifted by the prospect of her first lead that she couldn't resist grabbing Luna by the face and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thank you, Luna."

Luna cocked her head and regarded Hermione for a moment before chuckling. "It's okay, bye Hermione," she said before walking away.

As she watched Luna walk away Hermione felt slightly guilty at all of the times she had sneered at Luna. She may believe in the weird and unbelievable but who is to say it was Luna who was wrong. If anyone were to believe Hermione's current situation it would be her.

Hermione felt the happiest that she had been for a while. She quickly packed away her things and returned her stack of books to Madame Pince.

She could have skipped her way through the corridors on her way to visit Harry, if she wouldn't have looked like a fool.

Ron was already there when Hermione burst through the doors with a wide grin. "Hi," she waved.

As she walked over to Harry she noticed that Draco's bed was empty, she flushed as she thought of him.

Hermione recognised the thunderous look on Harry's face. "What's up?" She chirped.

"I've got to stay in another night," Harry grunted as he turned back to the game of wizards chess that he and Ron were playing.

"Well, Harry, you did break five ribs, your collarbone and both of your wrists. And you fractured your skull, that is a serious head injury. I know Madame Pompfrey is a healer but she is not a miracle worker, you need time to rest."

Harry ignored her as Rons queen decimated his rook. She could understand how Harry was feeling. She too had hated being locked in this clinical prison. Madame Pompfrey was kind woman but the infirmary was not a place of fun.

The boys sat enthralled by their game ignoring her but Hermione didn't mind, her mind was racing with thoughts of the medallion and Blathenuedd. She shot her friends guilty looks as thought of telling them but ultimately deciding to keep it to herself.

"Oh Ron," Hermione interrupted just as Ron's queen forced Harry's king to throw his crown aside and bow down in defeat. "Don't forget we have prefect duty tonight."

Ron turned to face her. "Oh… I was, er, gonna stay here," he said glancing at Harry. "Is that alright?"

Hermione nodded her understanding. "Yeah, I'll let Ben know."

When it was time to leave for dinner, Ron begged Madame Pompfrey to allow him to eat with Harry, which she reluctantly agreed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be out tomorrow," Hermione tried to reassure him as she stood up to leave.

"I better," he grumbled before saying goodbye.

"I'll see you later, Ron."

Hermione was getting used to doing their prefect patrols alone but Ben, the Headboy was becoming frustrated by Ron's lack of appearance. Hermione refused to cover for him when Ron missed duty because of Lavender but tonight was different so she told Ben a little white lie. That Ron was spending the night in the infirmary.

Unfortunately Ben was not impressed and seemed to punish Hermione for it by assigning her the dungeon corridors to patrol.

Great! Patrolling Slytherin territory, alone.

Prefect duty wasn't so bad when you were with someone else because at least you could talk to each other but alone it was the worst. She had to deal with passing Slytherin's sneering and laughing at her whilst she wandered the halls.

After an hour of walking up and down, Hermione decided to take a seat on a bench in an alcove and took a book from her pocket. She settled into Dream Theory by Lucinda Wayfair, almost forgetting what she was supposed to be doing.

Shouting coming from down the hall broke her concentration.

Hermione cautiously stowed her book back into her pocket and crept down the corridor towards the source of the noise with her wand aloft.

"All them years you thought you were something but look at you now," a menacing voice laughed.

As Hermione turned the corner ready to interrupt she saw a group of students circled around something she could not see.

"Ugh,"

The sound of the punch caused Hermione to cry out. "Stop," she screamed with more courage than she felt.

The group of more than twenty Slytherins turned to face her. She stood her ground with her wand pointed towards them.

The same voice she had heard before laughed and she saw Crabbe walk towards her. As she looked past him, she saw Draco Malfoy on his knees, struggling to catch his breath. His lip was bloodied and swollen.

Crabbe laughed again. "Look Draco, look who's come to save you."

The whole group of Slytherins laughed now, like sheep following the Shepard.

"What shall we do with her?" Crabbe jeered to his crowd.

Hermione saw Draco look over at her. "Run," he cried out as he launched himself at Crabbe and tackled him to the ground. The large Slytherins fought back punching and kicking at Draco trying to get him off. More Slytherins joined in. Hermione felt frozen to the spot but she knew she had to get help. A few of the Slytherins still watched her as she turned to run, some even followed her but she ran until the breaths she took felt like knives in her chest.

Finally she found Snape's office; thankfully the lights were on. Hermione pounded on the glass so hard that it rattled in its frame before she threw open the door without waiting for an invitation.

"Miss Granger," Snape growled aghast,

"Professor, come quick. Please,"

Hermione ran back towards Draco, Snape following just behind her. She slowed down as she reached the corner.

Draco was lying of the floor, he face covered in blood. He looked unconscious. Crabbe was standing over him, his wand pointed at Draco's chest.

Snape ran out and shouted but it was lost in the noise of Crabbe's spell.

"Crucio," the burly Slytherins yelled maliciously.

Hermione had never seen reactions as fast as her Professors.

"Protego," Snape cried. The jet of blue light shot down the corridor illuminating the Slytherins faces and settled around Draco. The force of Crabbe's spell rebounding against Snape's shield knocked every Slytherin to their feet. Before they knew what had happened, Snape was standing over his students with a terrifying look. "Stay right there," he growled.

None of them moved as Snape tended to Draco. The Professor stood up and sent four patronuses off down the hall.

Hermione was frozen from the shock of the scene she had just witnessed. Why were Draco's own housemates attacking him? She'd had the same thought at the quidditch match. It was all so strange.

Within minutes Madame Pompfrey appeared and after muttering to Professor Snape, she quickly levitated Draco away to the hospital?

Snape stared down at his students with disgust. "My office now." He spat enunciating every word.

"Miss Granger, go back to Gryffindor tower. Professor McGonagall will meet you there. I will speak to you tomorrow."

Hermione nodded but it took a few moments before her feet would move.

As soon as she had finished reassuring her head of house that she was fine, Hermione went straight to bed.

The scene that she witnessed replayed again and again in her mind. Draco had looked so pitiful. It wasn't like she cared but something was going on with him and she couldn't help but wonder what it could be.

When all of her suitemates were softly snoring Hermione still stared at the curtains on her bed. A letter drifted down above her, she caught it and ripped it open.

 _I didn't save you because we are friends but thanks_


End file.
